KantaiZero : The Zero Fleet
by Idealize
Summary: An alternate universe set in 2011 from the perspective of a human task-force. Join them as they engage the "Abyss." Finding allies along the way, watch humanity's struggle against the unknown enemy, which origins may prove to be closer than they think. With assistance from mysterious allies, they will do anything to save humanity, even if the cost is their own. [Irregular updates.]
1. A Preemptive Strike

**A/N**

 **[This story was inspired by the Ambience series by Hieda no Akyuu, amazing stuff, lemme tell ya.]**

 **I've had this idea sitting on my head for a while now. I'll say this immediately considering that this is my first post here. I am not an experienced writer, and I do not have novelist-like writing capabilities. Hopefully my writing style will not be as bad as I project. Hope you guys enjoy my work.**

 **~Idealize A.K.A Gunzou~**

2011\. Yokosuka Naval Base.

The once bustling district, now almost reduced to smoldering ashes, is under constant shelling from distant enemies, who have attacked without warning or a declaration of war, which seemingly felt similar to the Pearl Harbor attacks around 70 years ago. Japanese soldiers, both veterans and newer ones, fight desperately against foes whom they have never seen before, as the structures surrounding them breaks like glass bottles falling from the roof of a building. Armor divisions, mobilized immediately after the first cannon salvos are set ablaze by the enemy's high explosive shells. Left without naval support due to naval exercises near the West Philippine Sea, they are forced to fight inland, while entrenched in their small bunker-like garrisons around the shoreline with a few artillery pieces and small arms. With their armaments tightly gripped around them, the men prepare to hold their ground against the unknown enemy's fleet.

As the enemy was composed of ships somehow resembling gigantic fish, the shore defenders immediately thought that this was a new, modern ship design, sent forward by a hostile neighboring country. But they soon knew that the firepower, speed, and strength of these ships far exceed those of any existing warship. Equipped with hi-caliber main guns, mounted on their mouths, along with a torpedo complement which could tear apart a Destroyer or Littoral Combat Ship easily within minutes, these ships were seemingly unstoppable. Like juggernauts, they continue to push through towards the harbor, shrugging off the attacks of the garrison.

" **WE MUST RETREAT!"** one of the soldiers shouts, frightened by the enemy coming nearer.

"We can't lad," a naval officer, clad in his standard white uniform, now tattered by shrapnel while carrying his Sumitomo Type 62 MG responds. "We don't know for sure what their ground forces can do, but with naval power like this, it's safe to assume that they can put us down quickly, too. As the frontline defenders, we need to stay here or risk the entirety of Kanagawa getting blitzed."

The tall, slightly pale man who had responded to the soldier was Captain Henry Miyamoto, a man of both Western and Japanese origins. A naval officer stationed aboard the JS Kirishima, he was called to Yokosuka to be informed of another upcoming military exercise slated for today. However what is happening today is far from any exercise he has done.

"Understood, captain Miyamoto." One of the men, armed with a Howa Type 89 utters. "If need be I am willing to die in this-"

The man known as Captain Miyamoto cuts the soldier off. "I appreciate your bravery lad, but try not to die. You are much more useful when alive, you know." The soldier nods in agreement.

After their exchange of words, Henry looks to his surroundings. He sees men preparing for what could be the decisive assault of the enemy fleet, some of them even praying. With the inevitable engagement in front of them, Henry lets out a sigh, as he tightens his grip on the Type 62, goes prone and prepares himself for whatever may come towards him. However as he prepares to fire, he hears rocket thrusters coming towards his direction, and immediately, he spots two anti-ship missiles flying in from the right, their tracking systems dead set on the enemy warship leading the charge. The two explosions ring out from the seas towards the shore, as black, hazy smoke begins to fill the horizon. More rockets begin to descend, and the situation becomes clear for the captain, letting out a small smirk in the process.

Emerging from the east, the United States Carrier Task Force V, accompanied by US Destroyer Squadron 15, and the JMSDF ships Kongou, Kirishima and Ashigara begins their counterattack against the enemy vanguard force. Armed with a plethora of anti-ship missiles and their modern Phalanx CIWS, their weapons seem to be able to pierce through the thick armor of their enemies. Firing a couple more of their "Harpoon" rockets, they manage to sink a few enemy vessels here and there, which increased the morale for both the ground troops and the naval crew. Unrelenting with their rocket attacks, the enemy ships were given no time to retaliate, and the tide seems to have turned in favor of the defending troops.

The infantry around Yokosuka, now aware that the enemy has scrambled to retreat, are overjoyed by the news of successfully holding their ground against an enemy far superior against them. The US task force stops at Yokosuka for refuel and repair, and the Destroyer squadron's flagship, the Fitzgerald, having suffered little damage, stops at the pier, rather than the repair docks.

An American envoy, from the destroyer U.S.S Fitzgerald, approaches Miyamoto, who has his machinegun on a sling.

"Sir, Captain Araki requests your presence onboard Fitzgerald." The envoy declares along with a salute, who afterwards hands over a letter out of his small satchel. Miyamoto returns the salute, and then proceeds to walk towards the American warship whilst reading the letter.

The letter is attached with a small symbol of an anchor carried by a Bald Eagle, clearly American. Below it the letter reads: **"Urgent meeting aboard Fitzgerald, all personnel receiving this letter requested to come immediately. Valuable intelligence has been recovered. Details will be discussed on the command quarter."**

Stowing the letter away on his left pocket, Miyamoto proceeds to the docks, where the aforementioned American destroyer, the Fitzgerald awaits. With men carrying jerry cans filled with fuel piling up the main ramp, he decides to take the small stairway intended for disembarking. Across the deck he could see plenty of sailors pacing back and forth, either carrying ammunition or repair materials. Making his way towards the command room, surrounded by thick armor, he finds himself in front of two of the most well-known naval personalities in Yokosuka as he opens the thick metal door.

Mirai Araki, The current head-admiral of Yokosuka Naval Base. Descendant of one of the IJN captains, he is well versed in naval operations. His greyish hair, beard, glasses, and short stature may give him the appearance of an old man past his prime, but he is, in all aspects, the most reliable and well-versed person in regards to modern naval combat in the JMSDF.

Damon Fletcher, The current head of the US Carrier Task Force V. He knows Henry due to the latter's position as the captain of the Kirishima, and because both of them are always present in any naval exercise. He is the captain of the Fitzgerald.

"Good. Now everyone's here. Close the door for us, mate." Fletcher orders with a sense of urgency, and the hatch-like door is closed.

"Alright, now the reason I called everyone here, including Admiral Araki, is because we have recovered critical information on the identities of who we're fighting against. We salvaged one of those fishships, as I like to call them, but it's in bad shape, so we might be missing out on a few things. But what we've found so far is definitely groundbreaking." Fletcher explain whilst he hands a few folders. "Now because of our researchers onboard, we were able to compile results quickly. Admiral Araki will explain the rest of the contents, Admiral, the floor is yours."

"Okay, Fletcher-san." Araki then proceeds near the projector-intended white screen and goes on to explain the findings. "As for who sent these.. ships, we do not know as of now, and it seems they are currently only present in Asia. What we do have discovered is that the enemy fleet's armaments mimic those of warships of the past era, World War Two ships, to be exact."

The screen behind Araki then shows a comparison of a Fubuki-class destroyer, A Fletcher-class, A _Zerstorer 1934_ and one of the ships that they have encountered.

"These four, Second War-era Destroyers, and an enemy warship, are very similar. Their armaments, from turrets to torpedoes, they are of almost the same potency. Their armor has also almost the same thickness of those of the old destroyers, albeit covered with some sort of organic material, which may have been the reason why your small arms and artillery pieces failed to do considerable damage. Because of this we have decided to classify this type of ship as a _Kuchikukan_ or a Destroyer, and for this class, we have decided to call it the I-class, as it is the first to show up, and as for the name. it is the first syllable in the Iroha classic poem. But I also think it would be safe to assume that there are bigger, better and more powerful ships than these we have encountered. We have yet to see the enemy's cruisers, battleships, and carriers, going by their Second World War.. motif.. Yes, I guess that's the right word, if memory serves well, and so we should not apply the weaknesses of one type of ship to all of the enemy fleet's ships, for all I know our anti-ship rockets may fail to damage the other ship types." Araki then ends his explanation, and nods towards Fletcher.

"If you guys thought that was shocking, wait till you hear my little groundbreaker." Fletcher, replacing Araki in front of the projector, starts his explanation to the people present in the room.

"Now normally, ships like these would need a crew, unless these fishships are unmanned, like drones or some other shit. But when we salvaged that.. I-class, as Araki had stated, we found that it had no crew, no AI, no remote controller, but instead what we found was.. well, more complicated than what we expected, and probably your expectations, as well."

"It had a mind of its own," Fletcher exclaimed, his hand gestures and facial expression getting stronger.

"We found that it had.. a brain, so to speak. It had the capability to control it's own functions, it's own guns, it's propellers, **EVERYTHING!** " Fletcher now shouts, expressing his emotions. "Science hasn't gone this far yet! Not even those internet advertisements could've thought of this! It's like someone made a downgraded version of a human mind, created simply for warfare! Trackers, fire control, built-in radar, you name it! It's all there! It's like we're all running Windows 8, and they're a Skynet controlled DOS!" Fletcher, knowing he might've shifted the room's mood for worse, inserts a bit of subtle humor.

"Lemme ask you guys something. If you've got something to prove to me that humans can now mass-produce, or even create a war junkie Homo Habilis brain with aimbots and fire control systems everywhere, then I'm an ignorant idiot and you can go Lesnar on me and take me to Suplex City anytime. But if that ain't happening, then where do you guys think this kind of tech came from?" Fletcher, after inserting more of his subtle jokes, asks the rest of the room. "It's either some hidden Illuminati agenda shit or it's-"

"Extraterrestrials." Henry cuts him off. "It's that or you're right about the conspiracy shit."

"That's what me and the research crews were going with, but I was expecting you to answer Divine Retribution or something like that, given your time with the Japanese." Damon responds jokingly

"Hey man, that's racist." Henry also responds with a joke, seemingly to lighten up the room's mood. The rest of the room laughs as well, including the Japanese crew and Araki himself, seemingly unoffended.

"Alright, alright, that's it with the jokes now, Henry." Miyamoto plans to respond with a _"you started it!"_ But he holds his tongue instead. "Now we've told you everything we know so far, but once we're done fully analyzing the I-class fishship you guys here will be the first to know." Damon dismisses the crew, and they start pouring out of the room. Now only Henry, Mirai, and Damon remain.

"Hey guys, uh.. about all this stuff. Call me crazy or anything you want, but I have a plan." Henry announces, knowing that these two people can make his plan a reality.

"Go ahead, this shit we're facing can be called crazy in a way, so I don't think anything can be crazier than this just yet." Damon responds with a chuckle. Muffled voices can then be heard outside of the room, covered by the footsteps that the sailors create by pacing back and forth on the ship.

"Well, I stand corrected, you are one crazy bastard." Damon mutters dumbfounded by the idea

"Indeed, he is Fletcher-san." Araki speaks in agreement. "But I also think it is not too farfetched, we must study the possibilities of success from Miyamoto-san's idea."

 _ **Hah. This plan could either be this country's, no, the world's future or just an idiot's rambling. But I have no way of knowing that yet, do I.**_ Henry monologues, as the men then proceed to talk about other things.


	2. A Shocking Truth

**Naval Research Facility #4**

 **Beneath Yokosuka Naval Base**

 **June 2011, 6 hours after Zero Hour**

 **19:23:07**

A few hours after the attack on Yokosuka, dubbed Zero Hour by both Japanese and American crewmen, Henry Miyamoto, Mirai Araki, and Damon Fletcher enter the underground complex beneath the burning ruins of Yokosuka through an elevator inside the damaged Admiralty building, where the Naval Research Facilities reside.

"Hey, uh.. Henry, about earlier.." Damon asks, still dumbfounded about Henry's plan "Do you seriously believe that we can pull it off? Do you believe that we can actually reverse-engineer those fishships' brains?"

"We have no way of knowing it, Fletch. It's either going to be a success or an utter failure." Henry responds.

"I've already given the order to our best men to start analyzing the enemy's central processing unit." Araki adds. "When we get there, we should have some results."

"Man, this place is huge. And did you just refer to their brains as processing units? Like computers and shit?" Damon asks once more, curious of Araki's choice of words.

"It's because they just might be exactly that, Fletcher-san. The abilities you mentioned, they could easily be replicated through artificial intelligence, given enough time and financial support, possibly by a hostile government."

"I can tell you for the fact it's not AI, Admiral Araki." Damon answers with a hint of confidence "It's impossible to compress a system like that the size of a human fist with our current technologies, I mean, it had accurate fire control systems, directly connected to the turrets and torpedo tubes. When we tried to search for chips and wires and the like, we found nothing but some sort of brain covered with black organic shit. It was icky as fuck man, lemme tell you."

"Let's save the ideas for later, guys." Henry intervenes, combing his spiky hair as if out of eagerness. "We'll be able to know what it truly is once the researchers show us what they've gathered."

The three men approach a small bunker-like area in the far right side of the underground complex, where the so-called Naval Research Facility #4 is located at. Inside they see plenty of men, wearing lab coats pacing back and forth across the facility. They approach the table, where the cranium part of an I-class is placed.

"Wow, didn't expect the brain to be this small." Henry states.

"I told you guys didn't I? It's as small as a fist. It's like DOS, compared to our Windows 8 brains. But that DOS is specifically coded to track down and shell human vessels and entrenchments. Reminds me of Skynet, ya guys feel me?" Damon again inserts a joke with his explanation

"Man, you better lay off the Terminator references. It's not like one of these things are gonna get sent back in time to kill us all." Henry responds, which causes Mirai and Damon to let out a few chuckles.

"We should get serious now, lads." Mirai utters, to which Damon coughs to cease laughing. A scientist approaches near the table as he speaks. "This is Mr. Yashiro, one of our head scientists of the Naval Research and Improvement program"

"Gentlemen," The man named Yashiro greets, to which the three men laugh, due to the unintended reference, which Yashiro notices. "I'm not CATS, and all your base don't belong to me, so let's get started with this stuff."

"We've analyzed the neural systems of the warship you salvaged, and so far it has intrigued all of our scientists. The specimen you brought us was large, so we expected a massive brain to go along with it as well. But what we found was this small brain-like thingy, covered by some sort of organic material. And the reason why the specimen was huge was because of all of this," Yashiro snaps his fingers, and a second scientist brings over a crate, full of objects resembling WW2-era shells and torpedoes, albeit covered by the same organic material.

"You see, these guys had plenty of ammo in their.. magazines, so to speak, and the reason why your rockets blasted these guys to kingdom come was because these guys were loaded chock-full of these weird ammunition that they actually came in contact with the armor plating, which got blasted with your Harpoon rockets. Had you engaged them in a WW2-style duel with turrets and torpedoes, you guys would've been defeated decisively." Yashiro adds.

"Okay, so these guys were superior with their short-midrange armaments. Luckily we had these long range rockets, so we picked them off easily. So what can you tell us about their brains? We only saw the exposed part of it." Fletcher asks the scientist, who then proceeds to turn on a projector which shows the Destroyer's brain.

"Right, um.. This was interesting to work with, but we found that these ships have almost the same processing capability of a human mind. It could be perfectly capable of emotions, senses, but from the looks of it it's built to be dedicated to four things only; Sight, Movement, Armaments, and some sort of Target Identification. We found this out through messing around with its brainwaves, which we connected to a makeshift replica. Now the connection is pretty simple. A simple cord, which we assume is an emulation of a human's main spinal cord. It has 8 branches, two for sight, two for movement, a single branch for the guns, two for torpedoes, and another for the target tracking and identification systems. Apparently when it identifies a target as hostile, it sends a signal to the brain, where it automatically formulates a strategy and relays it to each part; the rotors, guns and torpedoes. If you guys want the short version, it's a downgraded version of a human brain designed to emulate a warship. Whoever made this, if it's actually being made by someone, has got to have unbelievable knowledge of the human brain to actually make something like it." Yashiro makes the final touch to his explanation.

"That confirms the brain theory," Damon states with a hint of pride "So here's the question we've been waiting to ask. Can you replicate it?"

"I was expecting you'd ask that, sir." The tall, messy-haired scientist answers with a smirk. "We managed to have a replica of some sorts of the brain on a smaller scale. We have attached the scaled-down prototype replica of the brain, codenamed Sample A, to a hamster. It was the only test specimen available, so please do not scrutinize our methods." Yashiro then proceeds to play a video on the projector. The video then shows a normal hamster running down a wheel , and on the other half of the screen, a noticeably dark hamster, it's eyes glowing red, running down another wheel, albeit much, much faster.

"As you can see, this is the result of a hamster specimen with the Sample A brain in its nervous system. We do not know what part the armament branches controls, but as you can see from its eyes and swift movements, the Sample A improved the specimen's physical performance, mainly because the Sample A brain is applying the Movement and Sight branches to the eyes and the feet, and also because it has less functions to carry out than the normal brain, since the Sample A brain doesn't decode nor encode emotions and some senses, like pain, so it can focus its processing capabilities on the physical aspects of the specimen. It also does some appearance changes as well, but we don't know how that works just yet."

"So basically, it improves physical performance when attached to something other than an enemy fleet warship. Looks like a good substitute for steroids, hah. Jokes aside, how did you replicate the brain?"

Damon, once again asks the questions for the three of them.

"Truth be told, we were only able to know this information because of an accident." Yashiro answers with a frown. "One of our scientists accidentally dropped a portion of the organic material attached to the brain onto the hamster food, freaky coincidence right? He told us about the incident so we observed the hamster for an hour, and we noticed the physical changes in about 45 minutes. The wheel almost got lodged off due to the speed which the hamster ran, and then after we recorded it, we decided to dissect it. That's where we saw the branches, we assumed that those connected to the feet were the Movement branch, and to the eyes were the Sight and also maybe Tracking as well. That's when we came up with the hypothesis that the organic material, which we'll call Substance A, contains some pretty nasty gene mutating stuff which targets the brain, which alters it to the downgraded human-like brain I explained earlier on."

"Ay. So this.. Substance shit, it can turn any mind into the Sample A brain?" Henry now begins asking questions himself, to which Damon chuckles.

"Once ingested or it manages to get into the inner parts of the body, like through a wound, then yes sir." Yashiro responds with a thumb up. "I forgot to mention this before, but I don't know how the hell the guys behind these ships managed to set them up specifically to attack like this. I mean, it could've been a matter of modifying something within Substance A, but damn, this shit's advanced, sir. Pair it up with the fact that these ships are carrying tons of ammo, it's impossible for me to even think that humans made this! Even the very concept of Substance A itself makes me question its origins, sir." Yashiro hands an unmarked folder as he finishes speaking his sentiments.

"We are confused too, Yashiro-san." Araki now answers, after accepting the folders. "Which is why we have to assume that the origins of our enemy are.. other-worldly. I know it sounds very unbelievable but that is what we have to work with right now. I will go to the Diet with this information and address the situation later. I thank you for your service by letting us know more about the enemy." Immediately after Araki finishes, Yashiro bows towards him.

"Oh, and give those ammo you found inside that Destroyer to the men manning the arty pieces later, let's see if they fit and how they'll fare against the enemy," Damon tells Yashiro, as they leave the facility.

"Man that shit was straight out of a Sci-fi fanfiction written by some unknown first-time writer!" Henry states, jokingly. The three men laugh in unison.

"I find it hard to believe too Miyamoto-san, to the point that it's like the plot of one of those movies that Captain Fletcher and his crew watches every time a naval exercise ends!" Araki, too, throws in a joke.

"Hey, the movies we watch are imaginative masterpieces! This, this situation is a clusterfuck! It's so unrealistic that not even Terminator and The Matrix could be compared with it at all!" says Damon as he defends his choice of motion pictures.

"Alright, alright. We need to stop it with the subtle jokes guys, this shit may be deeper than we think." Henry states, his eyes becoming sharper with his seriousness. "We need to grasp the situation first, re-establish contact with the rest of the bases along with the rest of the fleet, and we need to inform the Diet and the States about all of these. For all we know those guys in the mainland could be unaware of all of this right now."

"Yes, I shall be the one to go to the mainland, Miyamoto-san. I will inform the Diet as soon as possible." Araki volunteers himself while rubbing his chin.

"Okay, so that means Damon will also have to inform the States about our situation, maybe give 'em a warning as well?"

"Yeah, I'll tell them. Anyway our Task Force may get recalled back to Pearl once they hear about it, so in case that happens, I'll leave a few of our Harpoon rockets here at Yokosuka."

"Thanks man. I'll be staying right here while the Kirishima is in the docks for repairs, reestablish radio contact, and maybe help out with the structural damages and defense layouts, too. And oh, if you do get sent back to Pearl, say hi to Uncle Max for me."

"Max huh, been a while since I saw him, but I heard he's still as mad as ever!" Damon responds while chuckling. "Well, I'll be staying at the Fitzgerald and try to reestablish contact with other ships to relay info. I don't even know how our radios got knocked out, but I guess those techie guys can solve it overnight. Let's meet back at the Fitz tomorrow aight?"

"Yeah sure, you just HAD to pic the place where you're sleeping at."

"Hey, it's not even that far, it's just at the pier!"

"Alright, alright. Let's get some shuteye and talk about this tomorrow, hopefully if we don't get night raided."

"Akame and Tatsumi are the least of your worries, Henry." Damon, once again makes yet another out-of-the-blue joke.

"Man you're like a gold mine for references! Go sleep already, we need to discuss this fishship shit tomorrow!" Henry responds, while Araki laughs.

"Alright guys, see'ya tomorrow." Damon waves as he proceeds to go to the elevator ahead of the two men.

"I'll be heading off too, Miyamoto-san" Araki says while waving, as he heads out. Henry returns the gesture with a small salute.

" _ **We laughed and made tons of jokes that night, not knowing the obstacles ahead just yet. Well, it's a good morale boost, I think, and it's the right time for boosts like those so that I don't go insane at all this complicated shit."**_ Henry monologues once more with himself, as he lets out a sigh and waits near the elevator door.


	3. Situation Report

**U.S.S Fitzgerald Control and Communications Quarters (C &C Room)**

 **10 hours after Zero Hour**

The decks of the Fitzgerald are still crowded by it's crewmen, who toil tirelessly to re-establish coms, check inventory, and other tasks, to assess the damage done by the enemy attack. Captain Damon Fletcher, who has just come back from the Facility 4 laboratories, sits down on his chair in the C&C room, directly adjacent to him is a 16 inch Plasma TV, surrounded by smaller monitors, RADAR systems and firing control modules, communication array receiver modules, a few headphones, speakers, and desk microphones. In front of the com arrays, two men, the mechanics of the Fitzgerald, tweak the array to enable it to send and receive signals once more, as it was mysteriously knocked out during the attack. After tinkering with the wires and applying tapes, the mechanics stand up and face Damon, pre-occupied with his laptop.

"Sir," The mechanic, wearing a tank top, calls for Damon's attention. "We fixed the comms, and we found that some of it's components got fried, like an EMP attack would do, but it doesn't look like that's the case, since all our other electronics still work."

"And to top that.." The other mechanic adds, "We could receive transmissions from the Japanese, and short-range transmissions, like those from the ships belonging to the Fifth, but our long-range comms are down, and we couldn't pick anything up from Pearl or the rest of the Pacific fleet, but we'll see how it fares now."

After the mechanic finishes, one of the speakers, which was playing static, was instead now playing a voice, American, by it's tone.

"-espond, over. Repeat, Pearl to CTF-Five, does any of you copy, please respond, over." The voice commands were referring to the US Fifth Carrier Task Force, the task force which the Fitzgerald was escorting. After noticing this, Damon signals to the mechanics to hand him the mic, to which the mechanics obey.

"U.S.S Fitzgerald responding, this is Captain Fletcher, DesRon 15, over."

"The escort leader, huh.. Good enough, then. What the fuck happened over there, sir? You guys and the rest of CTF-five went dark for 10 hours; even them brasses at High Command are getting paranoid.."

"Well, we got attacked by a fleet of unknown origins, that's all you need to know. Set me up with a secure visual connection to NavCom, I got lottsa shit to drop."

"Alright, sir, I'll tell them the situation."

The chatter transitions to silence as the sound of a microphone Push-to-Talk button clacks, signaling that the operator has let go of the mic, possibly to inform naval command. Damon saves the Word document he has been working on, naming it as , while waiting for a response.

"Sir, NavCom has been informed of your situation. You should receive a video call right about… now."

" **Fletcher, you and Desron 15's orders are to protect and escort the 5** **th** **Fleet, correct? Then why are you allowing their communications to get damaged? Shouldn't you and your men be helping the carriers by now?"** A sharp voice cuts through the dead air, and on the Plasma TV, a video of a man in standard blue naval uniform appears. The two mechanics leave, noticing the tension of the room.

"Stop acting like a big shot, "Captain Sampson", didn't I catch up to your rank two months ago, or was it three already? Anyways, cut it out with the tough-guy-brass stuff, man. You know I don't like that title shit." Damon rebukes with a chuckle, with no trace of respect.

" **Hey, stop rubbing it in my face, not my fault I ain't getting promoted that much, I got stuck behind the desk and can't do any of you and your guys' heroics and shit. Anyways, I'm just following protocol here man, I'm not a guy who doesn't get scared of getting court marshaled, unlike you, obviously. But still, shouldn't you really be sending out guys to help out the carriers?"** The man known as Sampson responds, his voice shrinking a bit so that he loses his former voice.

"Ay, I'm scared of getting court marshaled, too. Cause who doesn't get scared that your life is literally at the mercy of some pencil-pushing brass that could end it any minute? And for the record, we've already sent out tech crews aboard the carriers, so no worries there. Their comms should be fixed in a few minutes or so."

 **"Alright, good. So about the attack on your fleet that the operator told me about, can you give me a situation report?"**

"Yeah. I have a document version of what happened and a few info's here, I could send It to NavCom through a secure line."

 **"Just send it here man, this line itself is already encrypted, so you don't have to worry bout any enemy spy grabbing hold of the data, unless you actually lose the laptop."**

"Kay. Document coming your way, man." Sampson opens his Explorer then mouses over to his "Shared" folder, where is located. Sampson then proceeds to double click it, and it opens the document.

Written by user: NomadRechtelf

Source location: C:/Windows/System32/criticalfiles (200GB Total)

 **Yokosuka Naval Base**

 **2011**

 **CTF5, along with DesRon 15 and 4 handpicked JMSDF destroyers are on naval exercises on the West Philippine Sea, and were heading back to Yokosuka after a successful exercise. We spotted multiple objects heading full speed towards the base, and after further investigation, we concluded that the enemy were hostile, and fired a salvo of Harpoon anti-ship rockets, which incurred enemy casualties and forced them to retreat. After the battle we were able to recover a specimen.**

 **Through initial analysis, we found out that the armament and armor of the enemy vessels were designed to mimic WW2 warships, with the ship's main turret having the same caliber as the 8' inch gun installed on the Fletcher-class destroyers. The armor also matched the thickness of a Fubuki-class destroyer, though covered with organic material, which allowed us to develop the idea of warship mimicry. Inside the specimen, we also discovered in an exposed part of it's cranium a small brain the size of a fist, which made me come to the conclusion that these ships were sentient beings. With the help of JMSDF's Admiral Araki, we were able to explain the initial findings to a handful of men and women we considered important enough to have knowledge of the situation. We had named the enemy vessel as an I-class destroyer, it's namesake being the first syllable of the "Iroha" poem. Admiral Araki also stated that it was safe to assume that there were bigger and more powerful ships than what we have faced today.**

 **In order to further understand the vessels, Admiral Araki sent them over to Facility 4, a Japanese research facility. Together with Admiral Araki and Captain Miyamoto, a friend of mine who also happened to be the current captain of the JS Kirishima, we went to the Facility, and there we discovered more shocking information.**

 **We found that the organic substance that was found both outside and inside the I-class destroyer, dubbed the Substance A was capable of altering a specimen's genetic makeup, and even it's entire nervous system, which we confirmed through an experiment which clearly gave the specimen enhanced physical strength, processing power and eyesight. This was made possible because of the Substance A's ability to modify the specimen's brain and nervous system, this modified system has been called Sample A. We also confirmed that the I-class was an early model of sorts, it had a fatal flaw in it's design, it's ammunition hold is so close to the external armor that it actually detonates because of our Harpoon impacts. I personally decided to call the research as Project Origin, as of the time this document is being written, I have not discussed to the others about my choice of the project name.**

 **We have decided that we should keep this information secret until there is a good enough reason to release it.**

 **So far there are only 3 people, not including the Facility Scientists, who know of the Origin Project.**

 **These are their profiles:**

 **Mirai Araki (Araki Mirai)**

*in this Japanese name, Araki is the surname

 **Don't know much about his history.. but what I do know is that he is an admiral of the JMSDF and is also in charge of operations to the West Philippine Sea. Measuring 6'2 and sporting eyeglasses, he is very easy to spot, to which his greyish hair and beard also contributes. Although already 47 years old, he looks fairly young for his age, even with his hair color and beard. He is a tactician and is well-versed in modern naval combat. Carries an Ivory Grip M1911 with him at all times, origin unknown.**

 **Personality : Has a good sense of humor, but is serious when needed. Completely decisive when it comes to warfare, but has good social interaction with his crewmen. Said to have PTSD attacks.**

 **Henry Shintaro Miyamoto-Ashcroft**

 **(A.K.A Henry Miyamoto)**

 **(Known as Musashi by some friends, Shin by relatives and family.)**

 **I met this kid back in Pearl when he came to visit his relatives. Currently lives in Japan. He's the son of a Japanese woman officer and a Special Operations guy assigned to Iraq, Henson Ashcroft, probably one of those a-la Seal Team Six stuff. He dropped his Ashcroft surname because he felt like his dad wasn't giving any attention to him anymore, since he's in Iraq and isn't coming home recently, only to find out that his dad's already dead when he was 10 and his mother kept it a secret from him, but he's already used the Miyamoto surname for legal papers other than his birth certificate so the government allowed him to use it. Had a little sister, but mysteriously disappeared, presumably kidnapped. That case went cold fast, which pushed Henry off the edge, literally. He's had a few suicide attempts in the past, but he's a bit more calm now, his social interactions must've helped him, along with his religion as well, as he says. In fact he said he chose to aim to be a naval officer so that he may have the power to protect those who are important to him. I was almost tempted to ask him if his real name was Emiya Shirou or Ichigo Kurosaki, but his sentiments were real. I could see it in his eyes.**

 **He's the captain of the JS Kirishima, and I have to say, he's worked hard for that position. Good at both fieldwork and paperwork. He's a good shooter as well, had some rounds with him on the range, and it felt like I was shooting alongside Clint Eastwood. He has spiky hair, Caucasian, and stands 6'7. He's good with any gun thrown at him, and also a great tactician, some of his tactics were taught to him by Admiral Araki, and speaking of Araki, we three get along pretty well. He has a .500 Revolver with him, something rare in the age of pistols and assault rifles. And he's pretty good at it, too, for a 25 year old.**

 **Personality: Friendly to other people, both Japanese and Non-Japanese, but I'm beginning to think he's got some sort of grudge or hatred within him. He can speak both English and Japanese pretty fluently. A good shooter, great tactician, and an even better person, feels like the guy's a walking peacekeeper package. He sometimes swears, but he uses it as a means of expression, not always as an insult. He has some sort of reaction when news of kidnapping surfaces, may be linked to past experiences. Emotions are stable as of present, but may fluctuate in the future.**

 **(Not sure why I have to do a profile of myself, but for the sake of those who don't know me..)**

 **Damon Fletcher**

 **I'm a direct descendant of the US Admiral. Believe it!**

 **As such I was compelled to follow in my ancestor's footsteps, and I decided to become a naval crewman. Back in the day my father used to teach me about naval stratagems and doctrines, literally indoctrinating me to become a naval officer, which, after a few, hard years, became real. I've got no feel-inducing story of my own, just a guy from a naval lineage following the track.**

 **Currently assigned as the captain of the Fitzgerald. I think I'm around 6'8 or something like that, with brown tinted hair, which NavCom surprisingly allowed me to keep. Not too shabby for a 28 year old guy. Man, I'm getting old. I've been issued a Glock 18c after winning an Army vs Navy pistol shootout, and the Navy allowed me to keep it, so I have it with me at all times. I like to think of myself as a good mid-range shooter, but I fail at using sniper rifles. The fact that I don't have 20/20 vision doesn't help either, but it's not too bad, I can still shoot guns, but snipers aren't my forte.**

 **Personality: Well.. uhh, I don't know how to say this, but I don't like authority. Not the people who are in authority, but the concept of authority itself. Sending out guys to die while you sit behind a desk feels wrong, definitely wrong. I might get court-martialed for this, but at least I'm honest.**

 **I'm pretty friendly with anyone except of course if they mess with me or my comrades.**

 **Those are the people who know of Project Origin in this front. I'm sure this'll get handed over to NavCom, but please keep this under wraps, we don't want a wide-scale panic or something like that.**

 **I hope this document helps you to assess the situation here.**

 **-END OF DOC-**

"This is some deep shit you're in, Damon." Sampson comments after glossing over the document, "I'm going to take this to NavCom immediately. For all I know America might be next on the list."

"Alright. Thanks man, take care out there, you bastard." Damon answers while letting out a small chuckle

"Same goes for you man." Sampson says, before the screen goes to the generic "NO SIGNAL" screen.

The speakers are filled again with another voice, this time Henry's.

"Kirishima to Fitzgerald, do you copy? Over." Henry inquires.

"Hey Henry, Damon here, speaking. Watcha need?"

 **"** Yeah, uhh. We discussed a few things with Admiral Araki during his trip to the mainland, said he wanted to call the enemy vessels by a general name and not just.. enemy vessels."

"That's alright, so, whatcha guys decided on?"

"He originally wanted to call them Deep Sea ships, because of their dark appearance, but I thought that was a bit too long, so I recommended him to call them Abyssal Ships, from the word Abyss. Turns out there's a pretty catchy Japanese translation for Abyssal Ships, it's Shinkaisei-kan. Did you get everything?"

"Yeah, I get where you're coming from. Anyway, I re-established contact with Pearl, briefed them of our situation. And those Sample and Substance stuff Yashiro explained, I called them as Project Origin. Hopefully you don't mind the simplistic name. Oh, and also I gave them our profiles. Hopefully they'll give us some support and shit."

"We're going to need that support badly, man. Transport ships from other countries aren't coming no more, there must be an Abyssal naval blockade somewhere. By the looks of it, it seems the Abyssal ships are going to let our resources get exhausted and then attack. A pretty smart move, if you ask me. Anyway, we'll do some patrol missions tomorrow; maybe find something useful along the way."

"Alright. I'll send some of DesRon 15 to help us out tomorrow. You better get some rest while you still can, those Abyssal ships, as you call them, might come back tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after the next day. I for one needs to rest, I'm feeling my eyes getting droopy here."

"Okay man, go sleep. I'll just play some wake-up shit over your radio tomorrow, haha."

 **"Abyssals.. Project Origin.. EMP's that only break long range radars.. I hope it pieces together soon because my mind's getting broken harder than in any NTR doujin!"** Damon monologues before lying down on his foam in the C&C room.


	4. Operation Repulse I

**A/N**

 **Here I am again with yet another release of the slow updating fanfic with the most unoriginal name ever.**

 **I apologize for any slight mistake I did, thanks for the heads up.**

 **Anyway, I'm just going to say this right off the bat, the reason why my last chapters were short is because it allows the reader to keep track of what's happening, and it helps so that no one gets lost from excessive perspective changes and plot stuff. And not only does it help the reader, but it helps me, too! But now that I've set the character stuff and basic plot (which still needs to be elaborated later on) the chapters might get longer as the story progresses.**

 **To you who is currently reading this, thanks.**

 **~Idealize A.K.A Gunzou~**

 **JS Kirishima C &C Room – Captain's Quarters**

 **0500 Hours**

The sound of a whistling mouth, imitating a bugle playing the Reveille awakens Henry from his sleep. Still feeling a bit drowsy, he sits down of his extendable couch which acts as his bed, and a voice from the radio where the sound came from changes to a deep voice, revealed to be Damon's.

"Rise and shine, mate. Didn't you say we were going on an op today?" Damon states over the radio, obviously chuckling

"You could've woken me up with less goofy shit. And my alarm was set a few minutes from now, so don't think that I forgot about the op." Henry pulls up the mic conveniently beside him as he responds.

"Hey, at least I managed to wake you up. And at least we're still afloat! Those "Abyssal" ships could've attacked us at nighttime, you know?"

"I know. That's why we're going on recon today. To see what held them back from sending all of our ships to kingdom come."

"Alrighty then, Musashi. Head on over to the Fitzgerald so we can coordinate with the rest of the Fifth. Go take a bath, too. You woke up so late that most of your crew's already finished showering by now!"

"Don't call me that, I've had enough of that name back in the academy. " Henry rebukes with slight irritation towards his friend. "And don't patronize me for my sleep, I had a rough time last night, heck, WE ALL had a rough time last night!"

"Yeah, but that ain't no reason to get lazy! Get moving, man. Anyway, Araki said he's going to coordinate us from the shore today since he got back from the mainland early."

Henry lets out a small "psh" over the mic as he lets go of the Push-to-talk button and goes out to take a shower as recommended.

 **USS Fitzgerald C &C Room – Mission Briefing area**

 **0600 Hours**

 **Briefing for Operation Repulse**

Henry arrives, with a sense of confidence that he will be the first to arrive among the other captains, only to discover after entering the briefing room that he is the last to do so. Letting out a sigh, he sits down, and notices Damon with a huge grin on his face. Knowing what's about to comes next, he prepares himself for a barrage of references- a trademark of Damon.

"Too bad your name isn't Mr. Anderson, because we've been waiting for you." Damon utters on the microphone, to which most of the American crews laugh

"Well, you aren't Smith either, so let's cut to the chase, we're losing time here." Henry rebukes with another reference.

"That's your fault. We could've started this a bit earlier, you know."

"Get on with it already."

"Alright, alright, chill down, Henry."

Damon then turns to face the white screen directly in front of a mounted projector, and with a gesture to his pen-like remote control, the screen then changes from a white, blank one to a map of the waters of Japan.

"Our trade routes with Russia and China haven't been compromised just yet. We're still having ships come by to our other ports from Vladivostok, so that means the bases up there are safe. But down in the Pacific, no ships are coming by at all. We're going to run out of precious resources because of this if we don't figure it out soon. What puzzled me the most is the fact that none of our neighboring countries have sent distress messages just yet, nor did they inform us that they'd stop sending ships out. So it's either the container ships are lost at sea due to some circumstance, or they got sunk so swiftly and left without time to inform anyone else."

Damon explains, his laser pointer directed towards the screen.

"This is why we're going to set out towards one of the common trade routes used by the Australian cargo boats, we're going to see what we can find, piece the information together, and maybe come to a conclusion. If we encounter any Abyssal ships along the way, engagement is fine, as long as the formation is kept." Damon then points to Henry, signaling him to go to the front.

"Alright, here's the order of battle. We're going to leave the George Washington here in Yokosuka along with some of DesRon15, as we have not ascertained yet whether the enemy has air power, and it is still too risky to send out one of America's trump cards. For the main force, we'll have a portion of DesRon15 accompanied by AEGIS-capable Japanese ships. We'll split up into two groups. One will be the escort fleet, led by the Kongou, and the main fleet will be led by the Fitzgerald. My ship, the Kirishima, will also be present in the main fleet. Also joining us, we have Admiral Mirai Araki, who will help us in coordinating our attacks. He's in the Yokosuka Logistics Center and will inform us of any enemy presence and advise us for the best course of action available in any situation. Our load-out shall be shown to us by the head of Naval Weaponry Development Department, Mr. Shirou Itami. He's our go-to guy for weapon upgrades in the JMSDF. Mr. Itami, if you please."

"Nice to meet you all." Says the tall, spiky-haired man in a deep, somewhat silent voice, clad in a suit with a black white-striped necktie underneath a white lab coat. "As Captain Miyamoto has stated earlier on, I am Shirou Itami. Or Itami Shirou for my Japanese comrades. I am in charge of the Weapons Department, and I shall be joining the fleet aboard the Kirishima to see the results of our products first-hand. As for our load-out, I shall present them to you now." Itami then clicks a small pen like device to activate the projector, directed at a white canvas. The canvas, illuminated by the light of the projector, displays an array of images with a few descriptions. Itami then proceeds to explain the images.

 **TYPE 6-M SCOUT-FIGHTER DRONE**

 **1x Boeing A6M Single-Exhaust VTOL Thruster**

 **1x Vulcan minigun + 93K Fire Director**

 **4x Ammunition box**

 **Control range - Global (Thru Low-orbit satellites)**

 **Integrated Long-range RADAR**

 **Vision Link**

 **Fuel Capacity allows for 10 Japan-San Francisco round trips**

"It might look like something straight out of the Terminator, but what we have here is our newest, state-of-the-art drone, the 6-M. The 6-M is more of a scout rather than an actual dedicated fighter, but the high-RPM Vulcan still allows it to pose a threat against modern fighters. It lacks missiles in order to conserve it's high speed, but has amazing fuel capacity and speed. It has a small, pea-like body with the Vulcan guns sticking out up front, an aerodynamic design which allows it to move high-speed. It should serve the role of a scout perfectly. And we've got 24 of these babies, so we can have a wide line of sight during the op."

 **Mk. 1 Remote Torpedo**

 **1x Electric Engine**

 **High-explosive ordnance/"Surge" ordnance (Electromagnetic warhead)/Grapple Warhead + High-tension cable attachment**

 **Control range – 100km (Underwater Transmission Array)**

 **Vision Link**

"An improvement over our past torpedoes, we managed to fit a small, battery powered electric engine inside a torpedo hull. The torpedo is also equipped with a small underwater array transceiver, which allows for fast transmission while also permitting it to receive remote transmissions fast. It is compatible with 3 customized warheads, made by yours truly. The normal multi-purpose High Explosive warhead has enough power to cripple a capital ship, well, to put it clearly, capital ships of human origin. We don't know for sure what the Abyssal ships' weaknesses are, so we'll just have to hope for the best. The "Surge" Electromagnetic warhead exerts the entire electric capacity of the torpedo to the target with a copper spike at the tip, which could overload fire control systems and even engines of modern ships. What it does to the Abyssal ships is yet to be discovered, but that's why I'm here for. Last but not the least, we have the Grapple Warhead. Although it deals no damage, it is extremely useful in capturing enemy specimens. To put it simply, it turns the torpedo into an underwater grappling hook, and the High-tension cable allows it to retrieve the hooked ship immediately, but reduces the range to 1km only. The hook itself is equipped with sharp "Metalmouth" tips, which immediately shuts when it detects contact. The remote controller allows for precise targeting, which turns the torpedo into a deadly accurate bear trap. Or ship trap. Anyway, we have a large amount of these torps in hand, so feel free to spam em.

 **TYPE AB-1 AMMUNITION**

 **Compatible with most Assault Rifle and Machine Gun chambers, Phalanx CIWS chambers and any Sniper Rifle not exceeding .50 cal.**

"We processed the ammunition of the captured ship, which Yashiro gave to me. It seems that it's compatible with most guns, just not the high-caliber ones. The small-arms ammunition were easy to process, but the torpedoes and shells that the captured destroyer carried is going to take some time to analyze. We've yet to figure out how these Abyssal bullets will do to the Abyssal ships themselves, and I'm here to take the results from field-testing. Well, that's all I've got for now, any questions?" Itami asks as he concludes.

"Yeah, the AB-1 ammo, how are we supposed to load it in the CIWS chambers?" Damon asks, while the Fitzgerald's crew mutters.

"We've sorted them out in boxes, since we found out that they acted like clay when they came in contact with a bullet. It mimicked the shape and size of the bullet, and we found out through testing that it fires smoothly as well. Hopefully you'll find it easy to hook up to the CIWS, just pull an edge of the belt and attach it, and let the gun do the magic." Itami concludes, his stoic face shifting towards Henry. "That's all we have for now."

"Alright, no more questions? Then we'll start. Report back to your respective ships and wait for further orders. "Henry orders, while motioning towards the door.

After heading back to the Kirishima, Henry picks up his PTT mic, and with a smirk on his face, utters the following words:

"Kirishima to all participating ships, commence operation Repulse. Line ahead formation, escort fleet's going in first!"

The ships cruise through the Pacific Ocean without any resistance whatsoever, which put's Henry in an uneasy situation. They had encountered at least 50 ships during the first wave, yet they see no enemy presence in the path towards their destination. The closer they get, the more eerie the atmosphere gets. The radio silence doesn't help either, but this gets worse when they reach the trading route's most usually crowded area. An eerie silence greets the fleet, which also spots small, metal bars drifting across the ocean, to the shock of the crews.

"Break radio silence. Looks like the cargo ships got ambushed around here." Fletcher utters on the radio.

"Yeah, seems like it. Get those drones up, we need eyes in the sky." Henry replies. "Admiral Araki, what's the best course of action for our situation? We might get struck here."

But there was no reply. Static fills the airwaves instead of the voice of Araki.

"Shit, radio's down again sir! It's completely like last time, but only our long range comms are down!" An engineer shouts over the ship's intercom.

"Notto disu shitto agen.." Henry replies half-seriously. "We still have lines with the rest of the fleet right?"

"Yes sir."

"Good." Henry then switches over to the fleet radio. "All units prepare for combat! Our comms with HQ has been jammed, so be ready! What are the 6-M's reporting? What are we up against here?"

"A whole load of nothing. No contact for a few miles." Fletcher responds.

"Shit, then who the hell is jamm—"

"Sir! Sonar contact! Torps coming from all sides!" The SONAR controller exclaims.

"I should've seen this coming. Looks like they have subs after all.. What the hell are the guys behind this planning anyway, another Nihon Kaigun or WW2-USN? Psh. All units, prepare ASW equipment! Maintain current position! Load up the torp launchers, set them to H.E!" Henry orders with a sense of urgency.

"But sir, shouldn't we be doing evasive actions?"

"Don't worry, I got a plan." Henry then picks up the fleet com mic. "Escort fleet, move ahead of the main force! Prepare anchors!"

"This again? We're in a pinch here, Henry, not another fucking naval exercise!" Damon asks somewhat furiously.

"Hey, I wouldn't be doing that for the last years if it isn't applicable in battles! Escort fleet, on my mark.. Drop portside anchors! Full power on engines, now!"

The escort fleet drop their portside anchors and go full speed as ordered, using centrifugal force to accelerate their spin. Waiting for the right moment, Henry sends another command.

"Fire torpedoes!" The fast rotation of the escort fleet allows for a 360-degree rapid fire of the specifically made autoloading torpedo tubes, spitting out the MK.1 Remote Torpedoes like a dragon breathing fire in a circular manner towards the enemy torpedoes, effectively surrounding the escort fleet with a ring of torpedoes. Looking on his ship's HUD map, Henry once again picks up the mic, his fleet's torpedoes nearing contact with the enemy's.

"Detonate on my mark.." Henry goes for a slight pause as the HUD displays imminent contact between his torpedoes and the enemy's. "Mark! Detonate torps now!"

Underwater explosions rock the crew of the escort fleet as 30+ torpedoes detonate, including the enemy's, which effectively disabled the surprise attack. After a small moment of silence, it would be Damon's voice that filled the airwaves.

"Holy shit, I didn't think that would actually work! That's some fucking Chihaya Gunzou shit you pulled off there, Henry! The American crews were pretty surprised!"

"You guys need to put more trust in me, Fletch. I've done this stuff before. Anyway, don't get too relaxed just yet; we still need to get these sardines outta the water."

"Sir, the drones have triangulated the source of the torpedoes. We now have approximate locations of the enemy subs!" The SONAR controller aboard the Kirishima utters. Henry raises his fist in celebration.

"I'm glad our weapons work." Itami, usually silent, speaks up near Henry. "And the way you used them was very effective as well. I have a feeling we'd work together nicely.

"Thanks, but you can praise me and your weapons later, we still have to clean up this mess and head back home." Henry picks up the mic. "It's submarine season, folks. Let's get some of these guys and get the hell out before Abyss reinforcements come!"

 **"It's starting, isn't it. The war against the abyss.."**


	5. Operation Repulse II : The Key

**Time for another update!**

 **To those who're tuning in to this story, thanks!**

 **I'm finally reaching the point that I have envisioned in my headcanon for a while, bringing the fight against the Abyss. Fighting fire with fire. You'll see soon enough.**

 **~Idealize A.K.A Gunzou~**

 **Operation Repulse**

 **Reconnaissance Fleet I**

 **South Pacific Ocean**

 **Status: Engaged**

 **Connection to HQ: Lost**

"Let's do this quickly guys, but leave some alive so that we can capture em!" Henry orders, as the entire fleet switches into ASW positions with their ASROC's at the ready. The abyssal submarines beneath them are assumed to be still reloading, and Henry jumps in on this opportunity to clear them out in one fell swoop.

"Drones have ascertained the submarine's position through passive SONAR and heat detection. We now have more accurate data, sir. 20 contacts in all." The drone-controller utters towards Henry, and he is pleased by the news.

"Good. I'm marking the targets. Do not shoot the unmarked ones, repeat, do not shoot the unmarked subs! Fire simultaneously on my mark." Henry once again utters on the mic as the HUD now shows the marked targets. Focusing on the HUD which updates the enemy position every second, he determines the timing, and after a small breath, picks up his mic and orders..

"Mark! Fire ASROCs now!" Just as he orders, the sound of ignition could be heard from all sides of the ship.

"Weaponry department confirms ASROC launch, sir!"

"Fitzgerald copies. ASROCs firing, now!"

"Kongou copies. ASROCs, faiyaa!"

"Ashigara here, message received and understood. Firing!"

The other ships copy as well, and just as the airwaves are filled with the voices of radio operators confirming the launch orders of their ASROCs and rocket fuel igniting, underwater explosions could be heard on the surface, splashing huge amounts of water in the process.

"Hit confirmed, 3, wait, 5 SONAR contacts, lost!"

"Haha! We got'em! Keep up the fire, don't let them fire their torps again!" Henry chuckles, as he smells the air around him which he calls as the smell of victory, victory that smells like fuel and seawater.

"10 contacts down, their lines are thinning out!"

"Keep it up! I'm going out for a closer look!"

"Wait sir, it's dangero—"the drone operator tries to stop Henry, but he himself is stopped by a veteran crewmember.

"Hey kid, I'm assuming your new here, but let the Captain do his stuff. He knows what he's doing."

"Y-yes sir!" The operator responds, to which Itami, still being silent in the corner, lets out a small smirk.

Henry paces through the deck outside, going near the handrails of the Kirishima, just in front of the ASROC launcher.

"Haha, take that you abyssal bastards!" Henry shouts in pure enjoyment, seeing his forces wipe out the unknown enemy gives him a feeling of ecstasy, unexplainable by himself.

"Uh, sir, you might.. wanna take a look at this.." The optics controller of the Fitzgerald says towards Damon, who is sitting in his own C&C room. His screen shows Henry on the handrails, extending his arms in a chop-like maneuver whenever an ASROC is launched.

"What the, he's doing that again!? Damn, what a fucking chuuni, haha. Anyways, just let him be mate, he's always done that during exercises, I don't know the reason, but he has fun whenever he does that, so I just let him do his shit. It almost caused us to fail as well; luckily the observer had fun watching him, too." The controller just nods with a smirk from Damon's reply.

Henry, having satisfied himself with his actions, rushes back to the C&C room, but not before getting splashed by a gush of seawater in the back by an ASROC explosion. Running through the halls with his wet hair, he then proceeds to take off his coat and hang it near the door of the C&C room.

"Whoo! That was fun!" The crewmen laugh along with Henry, then after the laughter subsides, Henry sits down on the table and begins to settle down. "Gimme a sitrep."

"16 down, the rest of em, including the unmarked submarines, are trying to make a run for it towards the east. Also sir, we've reestablished contacted with HQ. Admiral Araki is on the line waiting for you sir."

"Ah, okay. " Henry then picks up the mic, handed to him by the operator. "Admiral Araki, Miyamoto here, sorry for the delay."

"It's okay, Henry." Araki responds, politely as ever. "Is the fleet alright? Can you give me a situation report?"

"Yes sir. We have engaged enemy submarines, no damage on any of the ships. We're still chasing down the stragglers."

"Okay, carry on. Please inform me about any significant change, okay?"

"Will do, sir." Henry puts down the mic and asks his drone operator for a sitrep. "What's the status?"

"Only the two unmarked subs left sir. Orders?"

"Break formation and chase em down. Load up the torpedoes with grappling warheads, tell the rest of the fleet to stay here and cover our asses." The operator nods in agreement.

The Kirishima goes full speed in pursuit of the two submarines, the grappling torpedoes at the ready. Henry watches eagerly as the Kirishima gets closer and closer to the target subs, then, once in rage, he lets off the order.

"Fire grappling torpedoes! Set them to tracking!" Henry orders, then two torpedoes are let loose by the MKI launcher, hunting straight for the submerged abyssal submarines. The HUD then shows the torpedoes' frontal camera, displaying the deep sea with strange looking objects, assumed to be the abyssal submarines, in front. The torpedo hooks managed to bite to one of the submarines, but the other evades and the hook bites a coral instead.

"Sir, one of the torpedoes failed to connect!"

"It's okay. Retrieve the one we got, and set one of the drones to follow the one who's escaping. Go to neutral stance, search for any possible survivors or reinforcements coming our way. Let's get this sub fast."

The high-tension cable reels in the submarine, it's black silhouette slowly becoming more visible as it gets drawn up to the surface, then, Henry, Itami, and the rest of the crew, standing on the deck near the launcher are shocked by what they see.

"What.. the hell is this?"

"No way, is that.. human?"

They discover that the submarine looks like a girl in a snorkel, armed to the teeth with blackish-looking torpedo launchers near her hand. She tries to aim it towards the crew, but Henry cuts this short with two shots from his .500 Revolver with the newly-made AB-1 bullets made specifically for it. The bullets prove their worth, as it obviously disabled the torpedo launcher that the submarine carried.

"What are you..?" Henry utters, not expecting a response from the submarine laying down on the metal deck.

"Sen.. sui.. kan." The submarine responds in broken Japanese, much to Henry's surprise.

"Yes, I know you're a submarine. But what _exactly_ are you? A cyborg? A robot? An alien? Just what are you?"

The submarine doesn't respond to Henry's second question. He turns away in dismay, and snaps his fingers towards the rest of the crew.

"Tie her up at the back of the ship. Watch out though, she may have one of them pop guns submarines carried in the past, since the enemy is trying to mimic past warships, and all that. If she does have one of em, shoot that part and that part only with this. Be careful though, you might damage something else." Henry hands his Modified Taurus Raging Bull .500 to one of the crewmen, as he signals Itami to go with him to the C&C room.

"Well, Mr. Itami, your new weaponry is now confirmed to work. But about our enemies.. what do you think about the one we captured? What do you think is the enemy planning? What _exactly_ do you think is the enemy? Because that submarine looked really human to me. Waytoo human."

"Hmm, I cannot answer all of your questions, but let me throw a guess. They're trying to scare or demoralize us. From what I see, she, or it look like an onryo, or a vengeful ghost, but you probably know that anyway. What I'm thinking is that they're trying to emulate them, and strike fear in our men's hearts."

"Hmm, that may be so, but how do you think they made that.. submarine?"

"I do not have a guess for that, unfortunately, but perhaps, the rest of the fleet and the Admiral may have a few theories."

"Yeah, I think so too. Let's head back to port." Henry picks up the mic and sends out a message through the ship intercom. "We're heading back to port. All ships, back to formation 1, line ahead, just in case we encounter enemy surface reinforcements. We're in for a shellshock once we get home." He then twists a small button-like object. "Admiral Araki, the fleet is heading back with a captured specimen."

"Acknowledged, Henry. Good job." Araki responds briefly.

Henry takes a sigh of relief as the fleet retreats towards Yokosuka, then Damon's voice fills up the airwaves in the room.

"Hey, Henry, you caught a submarine right? So, what's it look like? At least gimme a description!"

"I'm gonna show it to you later back at port, you gon get shocked by this one."

 **Yokosuka Naval Base**

 **Operation Repulse**

 **Status: Complete**

 **Current state: Debriefing**

After arriving in Yokosuka, the crew of the Recon teams, and the Yokosuka base personnel gather in the slightly-damaged auditorium, with Henry and Itami on the top of the stage platform.

"What in the actual fuck is that!?" Damon exclaims in utter shock as he spots the humanoid abyssal submarine, tied with the high-tension cable to a metal bar.

"That's one of the abyssal submarine we've captured. We had to restrain her, so we bound her to a metal post. And before you say it, no, I'm not into bondage stuff." Henry states. "Everyone's here, yes? So I can start the explanation." The room falls into silence as Henry points at the submarine.

"We have already decided that the naming scheme will be the Iroha and we have already split it into different sections for each ship-type, so that makes this submarine the Ka-class submarine. We think that the enemy shaped their submarines into this onryo-like creature so that they may strike fear in us, but does anybody have a better theory?"

The rest doesn't answer, then Henry hears Damon shout, "That's fine, I guess!"

"Alrighty then, let's go with that. Ey, send the sub to the research crew, get some info on it." Henry orders before going to the next portion. "Next, we'll be seeing where the escaping submarine went. We sent a drone to track it down and maybe find its main force. Turn on the main feed."

The white canvas, aimed at by a projector, displays another identical humanoid submarine half-submerged, heading towards a small island. The camera shifts upwards, and the men couldn't believe what they were seeing. An abyssalified dockyard. More humanoid vessels. A crane covered by the blackish substance. An I-class destroyer operating on the ground, complete with tank-like wheels. But before the drone could go any further, it receives flak from the ground, and is shot down. The feed switches to the generic [No Signal] screen.

"Hoo boy. Looks like they're gearing up for a land assault. Let's see, the coordinates point to.. Wake Island." Henry utters, trying his best to not incur fear to keep the morale high.

"Well, they won't reach us right? We've been winning battles against them so far, we can take them!" One of the soldiers shout.

"Not necessarily. If we use the Second World War as the basis, it's that victories this early in a war don't necessarily mean we're winning. Japan did have the upper hand in the early part, but that all changed in Midway didn't it. What I'm saying is that we shouldn't be too confident. We've still yet to see their capital ships, you know." Henry responds, bluntly but still tries to not scare the rest of the troops.

"The only way to take them down would be to strike before they strike us, am I right?" Damon asks, to which Henry responds.

"Yeah. But, we still need to find a way to attack that ground base. We can't keep shelling em, and if we encounter heavy hitters out there, bye-bye fragile destroyer. What we need is something swift enough to dodge shells, but heavy enough to dish out tons'a damage. We'll have the drones for our Air Supremacy, but we need improvements on our surface weaponry.

"I guess this is where I come in." Itami states, to which Henry smiles. "Our department has worked on this for a few years now. A reboot of a project from 10 years ago, we've only discovered the practical use of it when the Research department investigated the Abyssal threat.

Itami presses a small button on a pen-like object, and the screen displays a bodysuit, armed with weaponry, engines, and other support systems.

"This is the Augmentation Suit, a full-body suit which, probably, harnesses the wielders' physical and mental strength, while being equipped with weapons. Now, we don't know how exactly this worked, but when one of our scientists tried it out a few years ago, the suit was deadweight and unresponsive. But now we discovered something that could be used to actually start it up. "

"The Abyssal Substance." Itami's statement made the room fill with silence, shocked by this information. Using their own enemy's weapons against them didn't seem very attractive for the crew. But what bogged Henry more was that if the substance _does_ work on the suit, could it mean that the abyss existed way earlier? And could the government have gained information on the Abyss before now? But he sets these thoughts aside and listens to Itami.

"By using the substance to enhance the suit and enable it to connect with the nervous system, we could make this suit into a powerful one-man-battalion armament that could theoretically take on a wave of destroyers. It physically improves the bearer, allowing him to tank shots from bullets and even artillery when done right, well, that's what we think, anyway. It is equipped with dual Vulcan miniguns on the underside of the left and right arms, a triple-barreled rocket launcher on the left shoulder, and an artillery gun on the right, which are controlled by a gamepad-like apparatus on the hands, which are used for controlling direction as well. It could be disabled when going for melee combat, which is probably possible due to the design that allows the bearer to carry a sword on the hip. It also has a buoyancy function, so you can literally float on water with this suit, if you're asking how, we don't know, we asked our superiors but that stuff was S-classified. Anyways, the quad solar panel on your back allows the electric engine to run, which could make you go at about 20 knots by just gliding. Theoretically, you can also just run on the water." Itami goes for a short pause.

"Going by our theory, the wielder would be perfectly safe, because we would keep the substance levels at a safe rate, and once the suit is taken off, it would automatically rid the wielder's system of the substance. Of course, this would require the suit to have direct contact with your nerves, so it must have an opening. A small needle which connects the suit and your nervous system through the back towards the spinal cord is the most efficient solution. Although it would leave a scar of sorts, it is nothing compared to a neural insertion, but will still give the same effects, although you'll have to endure a bit of pain when taking off or putting on the suit. Nobody has tested this yet, but if it does work, well, it's our trump card. Well, we've only modified three of these to work, and I'm planning to take the helm of one, so I need two volunteers."

"I'm doing it." Henry raises his hand, and goes near Itami. The two men glance and nod at each other.

"Anyone else?" Itami asks once more.

Another person raises his hand amongst the crowd. It's Damon. He walks towards the platform and looks toward Henry, who is dumbfounded.

"Hey, you're the unofficial envoy to the US right now! We can't risk you like this!" Henry exclaims.

"Nah, that position's already filled by the paper and burgers guy back at the mainland. Come on, just let me do it!"

"Psh, fine, it's your funeral."

"Thank you for your service gentlemen. I will make sure that your sacrifices will not go unnoticed."

"Hey, at least try not to make it sound like we're kamikaze's!"

The three men then go towards the Weapons Department building near the edge of the Naval compound, which Henry feels strange, since he thought it was underground along with Facility 4. They then enter a room with a metal door with a numpad on the right, which Itami enters a combination on. The metal door then opens, and the first thing they see is the Augmentation Suits themselves, measuring as high as Itami.

"Huh, this reminds me.. of Metal Gear?" Damon utters with a chuckle.

"Eh, you're right.. it does remind me of Metal Gear." Henry responds.

"Well, who's going first?" Itami asks.

"Someone has to do it, huh. I'm going in." Damon responds.

Damon stands on a small platform as Itami places the gear behind him, the torso, then the legs, the helmet with something that looks like an LCD screen, and lastly, that Vulcan miniguns and the rockets and artillery behind him. Itami gestures a thumbs up to Henry, and he returns the gesture, then, he feels a sharp pain in his back, and he also feels the substance entering his body. His eyes turn black as he looks up to the ceiling, feeling pain while being numb, in agony while being silent, hurting but feeling nothing. Then, his eyes go back to normal. Looking at the floor, he notices the LCD Screen, actually an HUD in front of him activating.

 **AUGMENTATION SUIT. MK.1.33 build 7**

 **Initializing**

 **Kai Protocols : Not Detected**

 **Weapons: Online**

 **Buoyancy System: Online**

 **Hardening System: Online**

 **Neural Connection: Confirmed**

 **Movement sync: 100%**

 **Ammunition levels: High**

 **Limiter system: 15% throttle**

 **Diagnostic Complete**

 **Releasing control to user: 100% control**

"Well, how do you feel, Henry?" Damon asks, as Henry lifts his head up.

"It feels great, the movements are smooth, I could feel my body.. stiffening up. This is the Hardening function my HUD displayed, I guess. Anyway, Itami, what's the limiter system?"

"It controls the flow of the substance to your body. You can set it higher for greater physical effects, but anything more than 30% is dangerous, at least for now."

"Ah, thanks Itami. Anyway, you said this was able to wipe out destroyer squadrons by itself, right? You think the three of us can wipe that base clean?"

"Not certain, but there's a high chance that we can do it, as long as we have air support from the drones. The suit is weak in AA, currently. "

"Alrighty. First, let's test out these suits, while our drones try to observe enemy movements on Wake. Then, once we got the hang of these "Augmentation" stuffs, we'll hit Wake, maybe do a two-phase op, we three will infiltrate, deal as much damage as we can, then send out the main landing force two or three hours later. Hnng-" Henry utters with pain as Itami disengages the suit. "We need a better disengagement system."

"Working on it." Itami answers.

"Anyway, we best get some sleep, take care of training later in the afternoon. Repulse wasn't too exhausting, but we did have to wake up early." Damon suggests, while yawning. The three men then head their separate ways towards their quarters, Henry and Damon heading to their ships, while Itami goes in his room at the Weapons Department building.

" **We'll finally be able to go on the offensive. Sure hope this works. But for now, it's time for me to sleep. I wonder if Yashiro's crew already extracted some info from that sub. I'll go check on it later."**


	6. Operation Tomorrow's Edge - Wake Island

**A/N**

 **Hey guys.**

 **I'm truly sorry for the delay, whoever's still following this work…**

 **I don't know whether I'll have more free time/more work in the future, so I guess this fic will update irregularly starting now.**

 **This chapter's entire wordcount is 7734. Kek. Sabaton is a good band.**

 **Idealize/Gunzou**

 **Facility-IV**

 **Beneath Yokosuka Naval Base**

 **1623**

 **Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.**

The abyssal incident.

The nickname for the unknown force, dubbed the abyssal's, attack on the Yokosuka Naval Base and the subsequent investigation of said incident. It is still shrouded in mystery, and merely five men have the best information available.

Mirai Araki, a JMSDF admiral.

Damon Fletcher, captain of the USS Fitzgerald and de-facto representative of US forces for the abyss incident.

Henry Miyamoto, A Japanese-American captain of the JS Kirishima, de-facto leader of the JMSDF effort against the abyss.

Shiro Itami (JP Itami Shiro), In-charge of the Weapons Department. Specializes in experimental weapons. Charged with the task of creating weapons against the abyss.

Shoji Yashiro (JP Yashiro Shoji), Lead researcher of Facility 4. Tasked with analyzing the abyssal vessels.

After the revelation of the Augmentation Suits, Mirai, Damon, Henry, and Shiro, who is commonly referred to as Itami due to his silent, almost somewhat unfriendly-like nature, proceed towards the Facility 4, to recover information from the captured Abyssal Submarine Ka-class, currently being analyzed by Yashiro and his crew. Entering the Facility 4's protected door, the four men are greeted by tables set ablaze and traces of explosions, and scientists holding out fire extinguishers, and some holding firearms like Tar-21's and M4's, aiming at the submarine, to which Henry and the rest of the men presume to have escaped. Yashiro is also present, slowly treading towards the submarine, and then zapping her point-blank with his Taser to subdue her, which succeeds, as the submarine falls down to the ground flipping around erratically, caused by 55,000 volts coursing through her body. Henry then helps Yashiro tie her once more with the high tension cable. He then proceeds to ask Yashiro about the situation.

"What the hell happened here?"

"She tried to escape by blowing shit up through launching a few of her handheld torpedoes, but not before we recovered some data."

"I thought I took out her torp launchers back at the Kirishima?"

"Yeah, but according to the data we recovered before her escape, any cells assimilated, or should I say, infected by the abyssal substance, has the ability to regenerate, given it isn't heavily damaged. I think you just temporarily disabled her launchers."

"I guess so. Anyway, you have any idea what this thing is? Is it human?"

"Not exactly. CAT scan shows that the bone framework is undeniably human-like in structure, but the organs aren't. Even functions that are supposed to be done by lungs is actually done by this abyssalized scuba-tank like.. thing."

"Any other useful info we got on that sub?"

"None about the sub, but we got new info on the Wake Island situation from our drones."

"Hit me." After Henry says this, Damon slaps him at the back of his neck, sarcastically. After a few chuckles, Yashiro continues on his explanation.

"Alright." He then places 4 pictures on a table. So while we were flying by, we discovered at least 4 more new types of abyssal ships, three destroyers and a light cruiser. We've already named them as Ro, Ha, Ni, and Ho classes, respectively. But what's boggling me the most is this right here."

Yashiro hands Henry a picture of what looks like a blurry picture of a woman-like figure carrying a staff-like object and something on her head that looks like something straight out of a movie, a monster-like hat of sorts complete with white tentacles. Henry then passes the picture to the rest of his companions.

"The hell, more humanoid ships?" Henry utters.

"I think the humanoid design is actually better than the current destroyer designs. Less surface area, harder to hit, you know?" Damon says, to which Itami and Henry think about.

"Well, wouldn't that design have less strength then?" Henry responds.

"Not necessarily." Itami responds as well. "The humanoid structure could still be strengthened like the destroyer design, the problem with the humanoid one would be ammunition storage, or anything in regards to storage, since it has less space."

"Whatever their flaws may be, we need to find them all and exploit it. And we need to be careful with this.. new humanoid design. We don't know what class it is just yet, since we haven't seen it's armament clearly." Henry responds once more.

"Looks like a melee unit to me. Just look at the sword thingy!" Damon says, somewhat jokingly.

"That seems possible, although it's unlikely that the staff is it's main weapon." Itami responds as well.

"We need to be careful of it during our attack. Anyways, we should start preparing." Henry utters.

 **YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE DOCKYARDS**

 **1800 JST**

 **AUG-SUIT TEST**

The three men participating in what they dubbed "Operation Tomorrow's Edge", the infiltration mission on Wake before the actual landings to soften up defenses, are preparing themselves for the attack by getting themselves used to the Augmentation Suits, or the Aug-suits, as they have called it. The experimental weapon, whose origins are a mystery and full capacity unknown pose a huge risk to the user, but they have decided that it is necessary to use this mysterious weapon to find a way to defeat the abyssal threat.

"I forgot to tell you guys, but when we took one of these things apart, we saw some sort of voice receiver and interpreter of some sort. Which means, this suit, according to my hypothesis, should be able to receive voice commands." Itami states, while putting on the aug-suit, right before a small squeal of pain, due to the needle insertion.

"Voice commands, huh. Let me try some, then." Henry responds, already having put on his aug-suit. "Deploy rockets?" He utters with uncertainty, not sure whether it works or not. Right after, he feels his right shoulder twitch a bit, as the rocket pods embedded on the suit deploy upwards, above his head through a mechanical apparatus. His blue-tinted HUD then shows the following message:

"ROCKET PODS READY. CHOOSE TARGET TO LOCK"

"Hmm. Let me try shooting those floating crates. ROKKU, ON. ROCKETS, FIRE!" Henry, arms extended away from him, shouts, to which 4 familiar whistles of rocket ignition follow. The steel-made rockets are about 3 inches long, but underestimating it will be your death. It is tipped with a highly explosive warhead, now enhanced with the AB Substance through Itami's work. The crate, which had been targeted, is turned into fragments of splinters after 4 explosions.

"Well, that worked nicely. I guess the same applies for the 5-inch arty and the MG's too." Damon assumes.

"I guess so. And since we can actually use voice commands, then movement controls may do so as well, instead of using the stick when gliding, you could just shout directions." Itami responds.

"But if you think about it, walking on the water is more effective, since you have more control over your movements."

"It all depends on preference, but if one walks, we should all walk, so we could maintain speed and formation."

While the two men discuss, Henry goes over his MG armament, shooting out the crates set beforehand. The 7.62mm special AB bullets loaded into the Vulcan MG tears apart the floating crate, turning the it into nothing more than small pecks drifting in the waters around Yokosuka.

"We should go test the movement as well." Henry utters. The two men follow him as well.

He then steps from the dock's jetty to the waters, walking as if it were solid land he was treading upon. Wielding his arm-mounted MG's in a battle stance, he starts to take in the feel of the suit. Taking a small breath, he runs in a straight line, shooting the crates with his button-operated MG. Itami and Damon follow suit as well. Afterwards, he starts experimenting with the voice commands.

"Launcher, Artillery, simultaneous fire!" His HUD grows green with a confirmation screen that reads : _Orders interpreted: Rockets and Artillery firing simultaneously._

He smiles at the success of his experiment, then switches over to the gliding mode, which he activated by simply shouting "Glide, on." Shouting simple directions like "left" and "right" on the way, he manages to use the Glide mode effectively, even taking out a few crates. The two men behind him see his fast progress, and do the same as well.

"Alright, we got most of the features figured out, but there's a few things I'd like to ask you, Itami. First off, how the hell do you know a lot about these suits? If i remember, you weren't the ones who made this, right?" Damon asks, with a tone of suspicion.

"Well, after we found stored and hidden on the facility, we found a small manual. It had some of the basic controls, but that's about it. The more complex things, we found by taking apart the suit and actually reverse engineering it, not successfully, but managed to wield results."

"Results such as?"

"The limiter function, the transfer needle that we found useless back then, and the things called protocols."

"Protocols?"

"Ah, I think I forgot to mention it to you. We don't know the exact effect of the protocols, since there are actually many protocols out there. But our theory is it's somehow linked to extreme emotions of the user, rage, hatred, love, stuff like that."

"Ah, sorry to sound so suspecting of you. I'm just asking since you seem to know a lot."

"Well, that's our job, after all."

"Anyways, off to my second question. What are the effects of increasing the limiter throttle? Can I test it right now?"

"As you already know, the limiter reduces the amount of AB substance going through your body, it's a regulator of sorts. Increasing its throttle would mean more substance getting pumped into your system. The default is 15% and it already increases physical strength, so I can say that it might make your body stronger even more. But I've never gone beyond 15%, since there's the risk of permanent neural damage beyond that point.. But as stated earlier, 30% should be safe. Why not test it?"

"The "should" part doesn't exactly fill me with confidence, but what the hell. If you say it's safe then here goes. Limiter, 30% Throttle!" Damon shouts, and immediately his HUD confirms the action. The increase in substance in his body causes temporary pain in the area where the needle struck. But Henry feels his body become lighter. His reflexes stronger. His senses sharper than ever. Right after he feels this, messages in his HUD confirm his thoughts.

"Passive Perception I - II"

"Passive Reflex I-II"

"Passive Thought Processing I-II"

"Neural Improvement Detected: Temporary Enhancements found"

Henry, dumbfounded by this torrent of information, stands still in the water, as he slowly scrolls down to the remaining information.

"Neural Enhancement : Swift Processing I

Temporarily boosts the user's processing capability, allowing his brain to process more data at the same time, thus giving him the perception that time slows down. "

"Physical Enhancement : Harden I

Allows the user to focus -OMMITED- to any part of the body, thus strengthening that part, but reducing the strength of other body parts. Can be used in an offensive application as well."

"How the hell does this suit know what's going on in my mind!?" Henry utters in both shock and fright, surprised at the information being displayed.

"Well, the substance does reach your brain, that must have something to do with it, but anyway, what did you see?" Itami responds. Damon looks on curiously as well.

"It's best you guys see it for yourself." Itami and Damon heed his advice, and right after, they are left speechless. Itami looks on, scratching his chin, while Damon reads with his mouth wide open.

"The suit's origin is starting to get clearer.. Heh, it even omitted the substance's name." Itami chuckles after his remark.

"Well, this means whoever's worked on this suit originally is also working on the Abyssal fleet, since the substance comes from them after all.. Then that also means that whoever's working on the Abyssal fleet.." Damon states with concern, before Henry cuts him off.

"Are government-commissioned scientists. Or at least former ones."

"Well, we'll have to figure that out after tonight. Or, if we're lucky, we might find some good intel on Wake during the operation." Damon responds.

"Yeah. Let's meet here later. Get some shut-eye if you want, I'll stay here."

"Wait, you aren't going to sleep?" Damon asks.

"I stopped liking sleep after college."

"Whatever you want, Henry. See you later."

"I'll be going as well." Itami adds.

 _Well.. I guess I'm all alone for now.. let me try something.._ Henry thinks to himself.

"Music player.. erm.. activate?"

 _Music player plug-in detected. Launching._

"Well, that's convenient. Check Internet access?"

 _Connected to WiFi network Yokochinjufu-SEC-1_

"Damn. Whoever made this is good. Google search. Sabaton – Coat of Arms"

 _Search completed. Found 20 Audio files related to search._

"Play Sabaton Mixed Playlist"

 _Playing Sabaton-Coat of Arms (Coat of Arms-2010)_

"Well, well, lookie here. I'm going to have a lot of fun with this suit."

Henry spends a few hours rocking on to a Swedish power metal band, laid back at the jetty, while laying down on a small hammock he had set up. Glancing in the sky, he looks around his surroundings. Then uttering something beneath his breath, fully clear in his ears, somehow blocking the electric guitar's riffs on his earpiece beneath the helmet.

 _Someday.. with you again._

But these sad thoughts are removed from Henry's system as the chorus of his song starts playing, filled with the powerful voice of the lead singer and the powerful guitar riff.

 _Call to arms banners fly in the wind_

 _For the glory of Hellas_

 _Coat of arms reading freedom or death_

 _Blood of King Leonidas_

Rocking his head back and forth, Henry gets into the groove of the song, but slowly he falls asleep on his hammock, music still playing from the earpiece. He wakes up only after noticing that there are a lot of people near the dock's jetty.

"Music, disable." Henry orders slowly.

"Good, you're awake, Mr. I-stopped-liking-sleep. We're waiting for you." Damon utters along with a sigh of relief.

"It's true though. Wait, it's time already?"

"Yeah. Itami's already coordinating with the rest over there." Damon points towards the crate near the end of the dock's jetty, where Itami, Admiral Araki, JSDF ground force leaders, and other destroyer captains coordinate with each other, with a map of Wake island placed on the crate. Henry glances at his wristwatch. 0192. The infiltration mission will start in an hour. He stands up quickly, trying to fix his bed-ruffled or more accurately, hammock-ruffled hair as he walks toward the briefing area.

"Let us acknowledge the presence of the leader of the infiltration force." Itami announces, pointing towards Henry who has recently arrived.

"Well, sorry for being late, put me up to speed."

"Alright. In an hour, we will be dropped through Black Hawk on the waters a few kilos from Wake. Not to worry, the suits are shock-proof, I think."

"That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence." Henry retorts. Damon, who is now behind them, laughs at this.

"No matter. Here's the plan. Once we arrive at Wake we are weapons free. Take out any and all hostile units. Try to keep minimal damage to the buildings. Top priority is the mysterious ship with the staff. We don't know what it's capable of, so we should take it down fast to ensure the safety of the landing force. After three hours we will go back to the waters and do a sweep of the surrounding area. While we do that, the destroyer force will do strategic strikes on the island with rockets against any remaining enemy. Since they will most likely jam our communications, the three-hour timer is set. They will proceed to Wake once time is up. But if we fail and Admiral Araki deems the situation too out of hand, then they will pull out.

The landing operation will consist of 7 destroyers, 30 6-M2 Remote Fighter drones, and 15 6-F Remote Scout-fighter drones for scouting. Ground attack first wave will consist of 150 JSDF Special Forces units, armed with M4 Assault Rifles chambered in 5.56 AB-APHE, the substance-enhanced version of the APHE bullets, along with some thermite charges and portable rocket launchers. Second wave will have 250 units, same armament. We'll have some heli support mixed in as well, some Cobras and Black Hawks, to be precise.

Mr. Araki has talked with High Command, and if we manage to take Wake, it shall be our base of operations for anything related to the Abyss. That means Yashiro's guys are going to take control of the buildings over there. Which is why we must keep damage to a minimum. That's all, I guess. We just need to check our equips, then we'll be headed out for Wake."

The three men participating in Operation Tomorrow's Edge prepare themselves for the first-ever attack on abyssal territory. Each of the men begin to get in their body-fit Aug suits, and do an equip check for one of the defining points of this war.

"Equipment status." Henry shouts.

 _-Equipment Status-_

 _2x Vulcan MG 7.62mm Custom Bullets – 100% Operational_

 _1x 6-pod Rocket Launcher Custom Rockets – 100% Operational_

 _1x 5 inch Naval Gun Custom Shell – 100% Operational_

 _-Ammunition-_

 _Custom 7.62mm – 96% Capacity_

 _Custom Rockets -94% Capacity_

 _Custom Shell -94% Capacity_

 _-Misc-_

 _1x Katana_

 _Limiter – 30% Throttle_

"We're good." Henry states. "Let's head on over to the chopper."

The three men, clad in their Aug-suits board the chopper near the docks, a Black Hawk capable of plenty of personnel. Remembering something from his childhood as the helicopter lifts off, Henry utters the following orders.

"Play Ride of the Valkyries. Set to loudspeaker."

 _Playing- Ride of the Valkyries_

Wagner's piece then plays throughout the Black Hawk. The pilot and copilot, revealed to be actually American pilots laugh over their comms as they hear this. Damon turns around and glances at Henry, his face literally screaming "are you serious" albeit with a laugh. Henry then takes off his helmet and sits on it on the floor. Damon notices the reference he's trying to invoke, and does the same as well. Both men and the two pilots, looking through their mirror, wait for a reaction, and then Itami finally bites.

"Why do you guys sit on your helmets?" Itami asks spot-on, albeit not knowing the movie the men are referring to.

"SO WE DON'T GET OUR BALLS BLOWN OFF!" Henry, Damon, and the two pilots say in unison with a huge laugh, giving themselves high-fives and "Yeah!" chants.

"Oh man, Classic Apocalypse Now. So appropriate." Damon comments.

"Damn, that was the best laugh I've had for a while now. Definitely buying you guys a beer after this op." The pilot responds, to which Henry and Damon react to with a hi-five.

"Didn't know you liked those kinds of movies, Henry. Somehow I thought you were an anime type of guy.." Damon utters with a chuckle.

"Hey, I still got some 'murican blood in here." Henry responds as he flexes his muscles a bit. "While I do watch anime, I like classic American movies as well. FMJ was good."

"Don't get me started on FMJ, man. SHOW ME YOUR WAR FACE!"

"AAAAAAAAAH!" The four men, once again, shout in unison, with the pilots turning around towards the men in the cockpit, imitating Joker's war face. Itami, seemingly out of place, just rolls his eyes, and scans his HUD.

"Man, I'm _absolutely_ buying you guys beers after this." The four men laugh at the pilot's remark.

"Anyway, since we three will be in this together for a long time, I think, what should be a good callsign for us? Damon asks, a bit curious. "How about something like... Let's say... Seal Team Six?"

"That's unoriginal in _more ways than one, mate._. _**MORE ways than ONE.**_ " Henry utters, with a chuckle

"How about something like Fleet Zero then?" Itami recommends.

"Fleet Zero? Why's that?"

"I think that's good since we're an unknown, mysterious, clandestine striking force! Think about it! Also I like the small pun it contains. Urobuchi's F/Z was a good read, after all." Henry adds.

"Tch, weebs. Hey, pilot guys, what do you think of our callsign? Is Fleet Zero good enough?" Damon asks, after a small joking insult.

"Let's save it for later, looks like we're here, boys." The copilot announces. "Doors will open in 3..2..1.. open."

The side doors of the Black Hawk immediately open, along with a green light to illuminate it. Damon peeks out of the door, only to notice that they are still high up in the air. Nervously, he asks the pilots a question.

"Wait, is it safe for us to drop from this altitude?"

"Probably. You've got fucking OP suits!"

"You need to man up, mate. I'm going first then." Henry utters, to which Damon responds with a _tch._ Henry then jumps out of the helicopter and starts descending to the ground at a high altitude, feeling the air blow against him as he does so. Since the altitude is quite high, he finds time to do a somersault in air, then, upon almost reaching the waters, he slams his fist straight down to the water while in a kneeling position, the shock absorbent suit taking the brunt of the drop force. The water splash is huge as well, huge enough that it drenches Henry's suit in seawater. He starts walking towards the general direction of Wake Island, but as he does so, he is once more covered in seawater, only to notice that Itami and Damon have already dropped.

"Man, that was fun." Damon remarks.

"Alright, we're all here. Let's head straight to Wake." Henry orders as the men march towards their destination.

 **Abyssal Occupied Wake Island**

 **Designated W Island**

 **Operation Tomorrow's Edge**

 **0300**

Henry kneels with one knee near Wake island, using his built-in binoculars to scout the enemy presence on Wake. Behind him are Itami and Damon, kneeling as well, trying to conceal their presence until the time is right.

"Not much presence.. Anyways scout drones should fly by right about.. now." Henry presumes while looking at his HUD clock.

"Suit, display drone feed."

 _Displaying DRONE1 feed._

Suddenly, Henry's HUD is replaced with live footage of a scout above Wake Island, with night and thermal vision activated and displayed on a split-screen. In the display, the blackish buildings are visible, and a few objects resembling a WW2-Era German FlaK 8.8 on the ground are visible as well. The hypothesized land version of the I-class can be seen, too, equipped with tank tracks. Right after circling almost the entire island, the skies are lit with flak, tracers, and searchlights, as the recon planes are shot down 1-by-1.

"That's our cue. Let's go, while they're focused on the air." Henry orders once more, as they approach the island.

"WEAPONS FREE! OPEN FIRE!" Henry shouts, and right afterwards the I-classes near the shore are lit up with 7.62mm machinegun fire, tearing their armor apart piece by piece with the AB bullets, then, the men deliver the finishing touches with the 5-inch naval gun.

"MOVE IN TO THE SHORE! WATCH YOUR RADAR, STICK TOGETHER!" Henry's orders ring out through the battlefield as they approach the main base, where the buildings and the things that looked like FlaK guns reside. Almost immediately, they light up another I-class tank that approached them, but not before it fired it's 5-inch main gun, placed in it's mouth. The men dodge easily, and then run up behind the I-class, afterwards sending it to kingdom come with a barrage of 5-inch shells. They take time to destroy the FlaK turrets with the same armament as well.

"Nice shooting, Itami! Didn't know you were good at this stuff." Damon comments.

"Hey, just because I'm on the Weapons Research Division doesn't mean I can't operate like a normal soldier. SF training did me well, just so you know."

"Wait, you're SF? What division were you in?"

"No time to discuss, let's finish this first, okay?"

"Alright man, alright."

The three men then continue with their operation, slowly treading through the area surrounded with buildings covered with the abyssal substance. On the way, they encounter a new kind of enemy ground unit which doesn't look like the usual I-class. Henry goes for the same fire-flank-fire technique, but he notices that his MG fire is not as effective against it. He then deploys the 5-inch gun, and orders the suit,

"LOAD AB-APHE, LOCK, FIRE!"

The suit delivers. The force of the AB-APHE shell is extremely effective, as proven as it penetrates deep into the new enemy's armor, determined to be the new type Ro-class destroyer by Itami. It then explodes internally, destroying it from the inside out due to the shell's delayed fuze effect.

"I guess this is one of their new models." Damon hypothesizes. Poking the carcass of the destroyer with his foot.

"There's probably more of these just waiting for us in the shadows, so be careful. We've also yet to see the staff-bearer." Itami responds.

"Look, there's one of those new models over there. It's retreating?"

"Let's follow it, but check your RADAR. We don't want to get bushwhacked here in this cramped area." Henry orders, ordering his suit to bring up the RADAR. The moonlit base is falling silent, as most defenders near the shore have already been perforated with machine gun bullets, courtesy of the three men. They press themselves against the wall of the building, with Henry peeking out of the corner while his RADAR and Nightvision modules are activated. He then sees the blurry silhouette of the staff bearer, looking somewhat humanoid with a helmet of sorts that looks monstrous.

"Shit, staff bearer's up ahead. Accompanied by some destroyers and a light cruiser."

"Light cruiser? You mean the Ho-class, right?" Itami asks, somewhat unfamiliar with the enemy ships.

"Yeah, the description checks out. Anyways, here's the plan. We go in a three-pronged attack on the open area they're in. Eliminate the escorts first, then focus on the staff bearer. Observe extreme care, mates, we don't know what it's capable of. Itami, take the left, Damon, on right. I'll go in hard in the middle and attract enough attention for you to wipe out the escorts." The men nod in agreement. After settling in position, Henry talks through the intercom installed within the suits.

"Tres, dos, uno, LETS GO LETS GO!" Without warning, the three men rush out from the building and begin their attack against the staff-bearer's escort, which are assembled in a diamond position, with the bearer in the middle. Itami then proceeds to flank the left-most Ro-class, bathing it in a hail of 7.62 AB lead in such a great speed that the Ro-class cannot respond to, then, delivering the finishing blow with an armor-piercing high-explosive 5-inch shell, disabling the land-based destroyer, finally, he shoots out one last burst of the MG's for the fatality. He slides to his left side to take on the backside Ro-class, but flinches a bit as a 5 inch shell from the destroyer whizzes past him. Shaking his head, he charges onto the destroyer, suppressing it with his MG's while circling around it. Damon, on the other hand, goes for the right-most destroyer, giving it a baptism of lead, as his MG's spit out the AB bullets at a constant rate, then, after getting a lock on the destroyer, sends out a barrage of rockets, tearing apart the armor of the DD, then finally sending it to kingdom come with his 5 inch gun.

"Yippe-ki-yay motherfucker." Damon shouts, as he holds up his right arm. Around this time, Itami's MG's have already broken through the tick hull of the backside destroyer, revealing a good opening for a close-ranged attack. He runs towards the wounded destroyer, dodges it's desperate quick-aimed shell, and shoves his fist, along with the MG, on the open wound, then opening fire while it's inside. The destroyer lets out an unnerving shriek of pain as it falls straight to the ground afterwards.

But both men notice something.

The staff bearer, the most mysterious and dangerous enemy in the formation..

Is doing nothing.

Meanwhile, Henry faces off against the new Ho-class Light Cruiser, with the staff bearer behind it as well. He goes for the suppression tactic, showering the cruiser with AB lead, but the cruiser, with visibly more thicker armor than the destroyers, shrugs the 7.62mm bullets off. It's double turrets begin to lock on to Henry, but he tries to evade this by circling around it, while his MG's fire their bullets. As he does this maneuver, however, the cruiser has already fired it's guns, guns with a much higher caliber than the destroyer guns. He notices the ground, where the shots have impacted, and the effect is devastating. The cruiser's shells have massive penetration power, as seen on the deep crater that it created, allowing seawater to seep through. After the two shots, he goes in for a closer attack, facing off against the cruiser about the size and height of a van. His MG's continue to spit out black lead, then, he deploys his 5 inch gun, sets the shells to APHE, then shoots it point-blank. The penetration power of the 5 inch shell, combined with point blank distance, is enough to go through the cruisers thick armor, now literally torn a new hole, then, after a few seconds, as Henry switches to evasive maneuvers, the cruiser explodes, courtesy of the delayed fuse the APHE shell sports. Now, only one enemy remains. And that is the mysterious staff-bearing ship, which is still not doing anything at all.

The three men now have a closer and clearer look on the mysterious vessel. A pale, slender woman, who sports something like a monster's head for a hat, blackish, substance-covered boots, and a staff, substance-covered as well. Henry stares at her intently, then, asks her a question.

"Since the submarine answered my question, I hope you do so as well. What are you?"

"Sei..ki..kuu..bo." It responds in a timid voice.

"Seikikuubo.. wait a sec, it's a fucking aircraft carrier!" Henry utters in shock.

"Well, aircraft carriers are weak in close-range combat, right?" Damon asks.

"Historically, yes. However, she isn't exactly a WW2 aircraft carrier, now, is she? We still need to be careful."

"She? You're calling it a she now? What, you think it's human just because it looks and talks like one?" Damon comments again, with Henry turning his head a bit as he hears this.

"Nah, not for that reason. Well, ships were historically called by feminine pronouns.. Anyway it doesn't matter, incapacitate her, so we can maybe examine her later." Henry orders once more, now raising his head towards the enemy, as he prepares his MG's.

"If she's an aircraft carrier.. Where are her aircraft?" Itami asks, glancing around their surroundings. Right afterwards, the helmet that the carrier is wearing suddenly opens up, releasing three drone-like objects, visibly covered in the Substance.

"You jinxed it, man. Come on, take em down!" Damon remarks, as he begins shooting out the carrier's planes. His MG's have been firing for at least 1 and a half hour, but it still functions perfectly, unleashing bullet hell on the planes.

"Here's the plan. Itami's on anti-aircraft duty. Henry, you're with me. We're taking her down. We got an hour before the landing force starts arriving."

"Got it. I'll stay here and take out any planes that emerge."

"Alright man, waiting for your further orders."

"Suppress her with MG's. I'm going in close."

Right after the exchange, Henry starts dashing towards the carrier, which is giving out orders to her planes. Suddenly, Itami's targets disengage, and start attacking Henry instead. The bomb-carrying drones strafe Henry's suit, and it's somewhat effective. A few bullets have indeed grazed his skin, so he breaks his dash and goes for evasive maneuvers. Damon, on the other hand, continues his barrage of machinegun fire, restricting himself from using either the rockets or the artillery for the reason that it may kill the target. Shooting **not** to kill is a hard task, after all.

Itami's shots on the planes then start to connect. Henry finds himself a window of opportunity to attack, and he takes it. He then starts to fire a burst of the MG, then afterwards, a shot from the 5-inch artillery on the carrier's foot. She notices this, and simply smacks away the shell with her staff, sending it flying, then explodes in-air, behind the carrier. Henry simply lets out a _tch_ and tries to recalculate the situation. After a moment, he fires his rockets, aimed at the monstrous hat. It connects, but to no effect whatsoever. The carrier simply looks at Henry in the eyes, and he returns the gesture as well, doing so while calculating his course of action. Damon, taking the chance to weaken the carrier as she stares at his partner, fires his own rockets and artillery as well, still aimed at the monstrous hat. The rockets connect, but the carrier simply backsteps at the sight of the shell.

"Holy shit, no damage whatsoever? But, those rockets, they're supposed to be high explosive!" Damon utters in confusion in fear.

"That's exactly the case. Carriers tend to have thick deck armor, making them resistant to explosives and bullets. This means only our AP shells or melee weapons stand a chance." Henry responds.

In the rear lines, Itami continues to shoot at the incoming enemy planes, his double MG's working hard to release the lead bullets that mostly miss, due to the high velocity of the drones. The high speed of the enemy drones/planes is too fast to be processed by Itami's brain, at least, his current brain's state. Knowing this, he activates one of the enhancements made possible by the 30% Limiter Throttle, Swift Processing I.

"Activate Swift Processing I."

Itami then feels time slow down. His movements slow down as well, but not as slow as most objects around him. He sees the planes clearer. In his mind, they are moving slower, but in truth, his mind is simply processing faster. His shots become more accurate, leading to devastating results. The three enemy drones, which had been strafing him for a while, had now been shot down, but, as the Swift Processing's effect fades, he feels himself getting tired. Using the brain in ways it was not intended to be tends to strain the user.

"Enough." The carrier utters, in her distorted voice.

Their problems aren't over yet; it's just going to get harder. The carrier's hat, once again open, and from within it, three more drones emerge, this time, rather than just orange-glowing dones, there are green, orange, and blue-glowing enemy drones. Itami knows he's too tired to activate the enhancement again, so he simply fires his MG in the planes' general direction. He fires the rockets in desperation as well, but the swift drones quickly evade them. Itami now slumps in the building wall behind him while being strafed, yet continues to fire his MG.

"Shit, Itami's exhausted. Must be the enhancement things, looks like they drain your energy when you use them." Damon assumes, while looking towards the fatigued Itami.

"Go on and assist him, I'll take her alone."

"Wait, you think you can take her on, **alone?** "

"I'll do whatever it takes for this mission to succeed. This operation will most likely lead us one step closer to figuring out the truth behind the Abyss."

"A'ight. Good luck, we're going in that building over there."

Damon helps out Itami, allowing his exhausted hands to rest over his shoulder. Somehow, the aug-suits don't feel so heavy, as he supports Itami's body. They take shelter in a small building, with Damon defending it from the approaching planes through the windows.

"You and me, then." Henry mutters beneath his breath, drawing his Substance-covered Katana, along with his 5-inch artillery on his shoulder. The carrier simply stands there, giggling at Henry, as she prepares her staff.

"What's so funny? Well, whatever. You won't laugh after this."

"I find your attempts to mimic our powers.. laughable."

"So you can talk properly, after all. Well, how you can do that is not my concern, for now. What I need to do right now is to take you down."

"I'd like to see you try. Fufufu."

After he lets out a sigh, Henry dashes forward with his Abyssal Blade, as he likes to call his experimental katana. He swings it swiftly and accurately at the carrier's shoulder and torso, but she simply parries his attacks with her staff. Caught in the spur of the moment, he goes for an untimely slash, but the carrier sees this and goes for a thrust of her own with her sharp-edged staff. Luckily, Henry managed to spin right quickly as she does this, and only suffer damage on his Aug-suit near his left shoulder. He takes a few steps back to recalculate, analyzing the situation.

 _S.. she's fast.. I'm not sure if I can keep up at all.. The planes are all focused on Damon and Itami, but even if that's the case, even if she's a damn carrier, she's still too strong.. Shit, looks like I have to pull out all the stops.._

"Swift Processing, activate."

 _ENHANCEMENT SWIFT PROCESSING ACTIVATED_

Henry tries out a risky maneuver, but it seems to work in his advantage, for now. Time, in his perception, moves much more slowly, allowing him to see more openings on the carrier's defense. He spins his katana as some sort of preparation, then goes for a thrust near her right lung area. Unfortunately for Henry, even with an enhancement on, the carrier still sees this attempt, she rolls through the left, then strikes Henry with a left hand chop. Even without her staff, she still hits hard. Luckily for Henry, the helmet stands strong, only suffering a few cracks, but now, Henry is lying face first down on the ground, tired, and mentally weakening. Even so, he still stands up, sheathes his katana, and tries one last attempt. If his sword is ineffective, then he'll settle this with his fists.

"HARDEN!"

Henry focuses on his right fist, then, he feels his blood starting to shift. The Substance is focusing on the fist, and drags along blood flow as well. Now Henry goes for his last, all-out attack. Through slamming his fist on the ground and breaking some of it as a test, Henry prepares for the final attempt. Running a few meters towards the carrier, with his fist cocked, locked, and loaded, he leaps forward, using his running momentum, which catches the carrier off guard a bit. The carrier tries to backstep, but it's too late. Henry's fist had already collided with the monstrous hat, denting it a bit and coming in contact with the MG's, but still, not enough damage. Damon sees this attempt, and comments on the move.

"A superman punch, huh. What is this, MMA?, I don't think that'll work.." But right afterwards, he goes back to shooting the planes.

Henry stumbles a bit as he lands, and the Harden's effect still remains. He prepares himself for another punch again, once more to the hat, albeit a little dizzy. Running once more, and gaining momentum, he leaps, but he is greeted with a staff to the stomach instead. Caught in mid-air, the carrier turns his momentum against him, allowing her staff to penetrate through the Aug-suit and the weakened torso defense, courtesy of the Harden enhancement, stabbing him straight through. Henry slides away from the staff that impaled him, and stumbles in front of the carrier. Damon notices this, and tries to help, but he is pinned down by the drones.

"You have failed." The carrier says with a cold voice. "You will meet your demise, here."

"Failed, huh." Henry replies.

"I won't fail.." these words echo inside Henry's head, who is now starting to bleed severely. He starts hearing voices in his head, they begin talk to him, council him, telling him things he needs to do.

"I won't fail."

"I can't fail."

"I mustn't fail."

"You have already failed."

"No! I must fight"

"It's useless, you are bleeding to death."

"Not yet.. Not yet!"

"Your goals, you will fail to achieve them, give up."

"No..I will not die.. until I have found her!"

"So stubborn. You yourself know you will die."

"No.. I have a chance! I must have a chance!"

"You're such a pain. Well then, prove it to us. Prove, that you will not die yet."

Henry snaps back into reality, a few meters away from the carrier, bleeding in the torso. He unsheathes his katana, and prepares for another strike, but as he thinks this he remembers something.

 _Increasing the limiter above the recommended limit may increase physical strength_

 _but_

 _There is a risk of permanent mental damage._

"It's a risk.. I will have to take." He mutters under his breath.

"Limiter.. 50% Throttle!"

Henry goes above the recommended limit of 30%, and the suit pumps more Substance than before. Henry starts to notice his bleeding is stopping, fast. The Substance is clotting the wounds, preventing more bleeding. He then grasps his Katana tighter, then the HUD displays more info.

"Passive Perception II - III"

"Passive Reflex II-III"

"Passive Thought Processing II-III"

Neural Enhancement: Swift Processing I-II

Lasts longer.

Neural Enhancement: Eagle Sight I

Allows the user to spot vulnerable areas and points of interest faster.

Neural Enhancement: Enhanced Control I

Allows the –OMMITED– to directly assimilate parts of the brain, increasing physical and mental buffs threefold

Neural Enhancement: Takeover I

-data unavailable, Kai Protocol required-

Physical Enhancement: Harden I-II

Stronger, less vulnerability for other parts.

Physical Enhancement: Manifestation I

Manifests –OMMITED– In a physical form. Also allows the user to change the form of any uncontrolled, weakened, or self-controlled object containing the –OMMITED– as well.

Physical Enhancement: Assimilation I

Allows the user to spread –OMMITED– to any un-assimilated object, applying the physical buffs, and to remove it as well.

Physical Enhancement: Projection

-data unavailable, Kai Protocol required-

Henry, tightening his grip on the katana, finishes reading through the HUD information. He wants to question how the suit knows about all these things, even if the idea of using the Abyssal Substance is still new, but he sets it aside for later. He feels as if nothing had happened before he had turned up the throttle. His wounds are gone, but he notices something is different. He shrugs it off, and he prepares to dash once more. He runs again, gaining momentum, looking for the right spot to attack.

"Activate, Eagle Eye, Swift Processing!"

 _ACTIVATING ENHANCEMENTS EAGLE EYE AND SWIFT PROCESSING_

Time slows down in Henry's perception once more. Seeking that one perfect spot, he aims for the torso with a stab. This time, it connects, albeit not too deeply. The carrier tries to counter with a slash of her own, but Henry moves faster than before. He parries the attack, smacking off the staff with his katana. The carrier has now been damaged, but it regenerates quickly. Henry needs to attack swiftly and deeply, but he will definitely struggle if he has to do it by himself. He knows it. Suddenly, a hand taps Henry's shoulder, revealed to be Damon's, with Itami behind him.

"Hey. We're doing this together." Damon utters.

"But what about Itami?"

"Don't worry. We followed your lead, our limiter is up to 50% as well. It was risky, but it made him recover pretty quickly."

"Alright then. You know what to do. Engage in close quarters, strike to incapacitate, not kill."

"Copy. Harden, Eagle Eye, Swift Processing!" Damon orders his suit.

"That's going to strain you a lot, man."

"No matter, let's just finish this fast."

The men then engage the carrier in CQC, fists and blades flying everywhere. Damon uses hardened fists, while Itami covers the two from the planes that continue to strafe, albeit with much more ease, due to the buffs introduced by the 50% Limiter Throttle. The throttle increase proves to be a turning factor in the battle, as shown when Henry goes for a slash, which connects on the carrier's shoulders, then Damon hits an uppercut on the carrier's jaw with his strengthened fists. Despite sustaining a few hits, the carrier is still able to dodge most of the empowered men's attacks, and even manage to launch counters of her own, but she gets caught by an unexpected .500 AB bullet from Henry's revolver, originally intended to be a distraction. The revolver's bullet hits the carrier's eye dead-on, showing the burning yellow flame that somehow reminds Henry of an over-the-top exaggerated basketball manga, while also signaling his mind to dispel those thoughts of inferiority and the unstoppable vibe of the carrier. Henry's last dash with his katana finally breaks the carrier's staff in half, rendering her unable to control her strafing planes, or to parry any more of Henry and Damon's attacks. After losing her only weapon, the carrier retreats, limping as she walks with wounded feet, eyes, torso and shoulders.

"Shall we pursue?" Damon asks, panting from exhaustion.

"In this state.. we can't.. even if we try.." Henry answers, to which Itami nods as well.

"Let's take a rest, shall we? It's still an hour before the landing team arrives." Itami recommends, as he shoots down the last of the leaderless planes. Right afterwards, the three men seek shelter on the building where Damon and Itami once garrisoned. They then slouch on the wall, as Itami and Damon began to fall asleep. Henry then sits down on the floor near the wall and begins to prepare to sleep as well as his eyes twitch and his vision blurs, but not before taking a look at his surroundings, noticing multiple figures come closer to them…

And seeing a rifle's stock shoved right into his face before blacking out.


	7. Shock and Awe

**A/N**

 **Just to remind you guys, reviews are appreciated.**

 **I keep stealing names lol**

 **Anyways, here we are again… the irregularly updated unknown fanfic updates once more.**

 **FLEET ZERO C.7**

 **Shock and Awe**

 **June 17 2011**

 **Operation Tomorrow's Edge**

The newly-arrived Admiral Mirai Araki swiftly sits down behind his table as he prepares to coordinate the rest of the Wake Operation. With roughly 400 troops, a couple of destroyers and an elite team at his disposal, his decisions can become the turning point of the entire operation. Opening his laptop and pressing a few buttons, he opens his command module, linked to JSDF HQ.

 **J.S.D.F**

 **Japanese Self-Defense Forces**

His laptop now shows a map targeted toward Wake Island, with a few details on the left and right area of the screen, with more button pressing, his screen changes to Henry's location and details.

 **J.S.D.F**

 **Japanese Self-Defense Forces**

 **CPT. HENRY MIYAMOTO**

 **ASSIGNED TO OPERATION TOMORROW'S EDGE**

 **WAKE ISLAND**

 **STATUS: ENGAGED IN COMBAT**

 **RADIO CONTACT: LOST**

 **VISUAL FEED: NOT DETECTED**

 **LAST KNOWN LOCATION: WAKE ISLAND**

"There's still an hour left…" Mirai utters to himself, as he notices the time before the ground troops are sent out to Wake Island itself, to capture the island. Just as he says this, the other destroyer captains contact him through the module as well.

"Miyamoto's crew is nowhere to be found. Scouts found no trace of them, but there are enemy carcasses everywhere. We last spotted them about 30 minutes or so, sir." One of the voices report, presumably the scout sentry.

"For our sake, I hope they can make it, sir. We've spotted enemy reinforcements coming from the southeast, a few destroyer Ha and Ni classes and light cruiser types. We don't know if we can take them…" Another voice reports, presumably one of the captains overseeing the landing operation.

"I see… I guess we'll have to find another way to support our landing troops other than close-support choppers... Ayumi, Get me a secure line to Yokota airbase." Mirai's secretary silently nods afterwards, then, in a few moments, the admiral's module changes to a live video feed of Captain Roberts, a veteran captain and current head of the United States forces-occupied Yokota airbase. He is also the renowned leader of Air Regiment 734, a widely known regiment best remembered for their excellence in all types of aircraft, gaining the nickname "Aeronautic Tokyo Express."

"If it isn't Admiral Araki, great to see you again. How's the stress treating you?" The British-American captain greets with a question.

"Not as bad as it was before, but it's still there when I sleep."

"Get well soon, mate. Anyway, what'cha call on me for?"

"Listen, ya still remember '99?"

"Yeah, and I'll never forget it. I owe you a lot from back then, mate. I assume you need a favor?"

"Yup. Our guys need cover for a landing at Wake."

"Wake Island? Who you up against? Holed up pirates again?"

"You know about the Yokosuka attack, right?"

"Yeah, those unknown vessels, am I right? I have clearance to know about it. I'm guessing you found their base?" 

"One of their bases, I guess. Anyways I want you to gather your best men for some air support, maybe some jets, you know? We have enemy ground units down at Wake, and they're heavily armored. Small arms won't cut it."

"That's the situation, huh… Then, you'll have no need for jets, if you want some ground cover, then I got the thing just for you."

"What is it? I'm curious."

"It's a surprise. ETA will be 30 minutes."

"Alright then, it's your stuff… 30 minutes should be good enough. Anyways, you going back behind the stick again?"

"Yeah, But only for this OP. It's been a while since I piloted one of these babies, and I'm excited to whack these abyssal things off the island, but I'm not sure if I'm still suited for this job. Anyways, I better get prepared."

Meanwhile, in an unknown location, Henry, with still-sleepy eyes looks up to his front, and sees three men, one with a labcoat, one with a kevlar vest and holding out a G3, and another in a black suit talking to each other. Wondering where he is, he remembers what happened a few minutes ago, he was struck in the head with a rifle's butt stock, but before that, he saw a couple of human-like figures drawing nearer. It seems that there are humans behind the Abyss, after all. He tries to come closer, but he then notices that he is inside a liquid-filled glass vat, floating around while wearing some sort of mask. His augmentation suit has been removed, and he is left only with his normal camo uniform gear, and a bulletproof vest. As his senses start to work full capacity, he starts hearing what the men are talking about.

"This is one of them, sir. There are two others on the next rooms."

"Good. You got data from them yet?"

"Yes sir. They were using an early strand of the substance to enhance their physical and mental abilities."

"So that's what the suits were for, huh. Damn that scientist, I knew they had something like this going on for the past years, but I didn't think that it'd be able to use our own tech against us! Anyway, what did you do with them?"

"We enhanced their strands with a better strand, they should be faster and stronger in a few minutes. We're still working on a way to control them, but most of the data should go to the second project." Unknown to the scientists, Henry hears this. He will not allow the enemy to take control of his comrades and himself. He begins to formulate a quick escape plan, but he must do one thing first in order to do that, and that is to calculate. During this time, he takes a few minutes to think about what the "second project" was. Weaponry? More humanoids? WMDs? Whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

"Second project?" The armed man with the G3 asks.

"Classified." The man in the suit answers. "Anyways, me and the rest of the guys need to get back, the destroyers and our new models will buy us some time. You guys stay here and get the data. After you get it, get out of here with the second submarine with a couple of cruiser escort."

"Alright sir." The labcoat-clad scientist gets back near Henry's vat as the G3-wielding man goes out of the room, but is shocked at the sight of Henry breaking the glass and pouncing on the scientist. Holding him down with a glass shard as his weapon, Henry starts holding him up with the glass shard aimed at his throat and his left hand covering his mouth, and then walks toward the armed man on the corridor. With the armed man's back facing towards Henry, he seizes this opportunity, grabbing the armed man's sidearm and aiming it directly towards the scientist he holds hostage. The man notices this and turns around while aiming his G3, but Henry has the leverage. He holds the stolen Glock 17 firmly while locking his right arm on the scientist's head. Noticing an opening, Henry shoots the armed man's trigger arm, making him drop the G3. Henry shoves the scientist and reaches for the dropped G3, aiming it towards both men. After a short thought, he smacks the disarmed man with the G3's stock, knocking him out cold. He then aims the gun again towards the scientist.

"Answer me if you want to live. Where the hell are the rest of the guys?"

"N-next room! P-please don't shoot me! I-I'm just the data guy!"

"You're coming with me." Henry slings the G3 he had taken and aims the Beretta M9 sidearm towards the scientist, as both men enter the second room, where more vats are present, with Itami and Damon visible.

"Release them."

"A-alright!"

The vats open up slowly, as Itami and Damon emerge dizzily from the vat. Shoving away the wires and the mask, the two men reunite with Henry, they face the scientist, now cornered with vats.

"Where's our gear?" Henry asks while aiming the M9.

"I-in the arsenal… p-please, come with me."

"Huh, he seems oddly cooperative." Damon comments, slowly twirling his neck to make it snap a bit.

"He claims he's just the data guy. That, or this M9 is just really persuasive."

"Well, let's follow him, then. We have a lot of questions to ask, you know." Itami adds.

The three men then follow the scientist, visibly shaken, as he walks towards a metal door with some sort of biometric scanner on the side. The scientist puts his thumb on it, and the doors open. Inside are unconventional weapons, possibly created for abyssal use. Recoilless rifles, custom RPGs, even a Stinger are present inside, along with normal rifles and pistols. As the scientist heads on to the room, Damon grabs him by the arm, and then pulls him back to his side.

"Don't even think about it mate."

"I-I wasn't, I-I swear!"

"Man, that's a pretty convincing British accent. You could pass for SAS."

"That was unintended, but if you say so, I'll use it a lot, **mate.** "

Henry simply lets out a small chuckle and sigh, as they approach the armaments room. He drops his G3 and picks up his Taurus Raging Bull .500, presumably taken from him by the scientists, conveniently placed in a wooden table in front of him. He also notices a few nice weapons on the wall, but his eyes are caught by an M4A1 with the SOPMOD modification. He grabs it and slings it on, then aiming it a bit.

"Hey, Damon, call me Soap MacTavish." Henry utters as he toys around with his M4A1.

"What the hell kinda name is Soap eh? How'd a muppet like you pass selection?" Damon replies, imitating the British accent of Captain Price with stunning accuracy.

"Man, they should make a game about you. Call it CoD, too. Call of Damon."

"Sounds nice. I'd buy it."

"It'd probably be shit, haha… Anyways, take what you need and let's search this place a bit more."

"There's something that's good for me, so just stay here…" Damon utters as he ties the scientist to a metal post, while heading out to grab an FN SCAR on the wall. Grabbing it and putting on a sling, he holds onto the handgrip tightly, testing out the optical sights. Itami on the other hand settles for an MP5SD.

"An MP5, huh. Seems a bit underpowered." Henry comments, while stroking his M4.

"I feel that it suits me. It's swift, lightweight and silent."

"Your choice, man. Anyway, let's go searc- shit, stay down." Henry orders, as he hears a few footsteps heading out to their position. The men crouch and stick to the walls, with Damon doing so even while covering the mouth of the restrained scientist, afterwards putting duct tape that he took from the counter on his mouth. After peeking and seeing four men, armed with silenced versions of weapons like the M4A1, G36c, FN SCAR and another with a SPAS-12, Henry sends a few hand signals to the men.

 **4 hostiles. Armed.**

While they're still a bit far away from the room, Henry takes the opportunity to grab a few flash-bang grenades on a table, then afterwards, signals the men to take their positions behind furniture, Itami behind some sort of counter, Damon hidden with crates, and Henry taking position in a corner. He then sends another hand signal, **Engage in CQB. Incapacitate.**

The four hostiles then proceed to the armament room where the men were hiding at. Placing a breaching charge, they stand back and detonate the trigger, opening the usually biometric-opened door by force. They immediately noticed the gagged scientist, and proceed to go near him, but just after doing so they are dazed by two successive flash-bang explosions. As the explosion rings, the three men pounce on their targets. Henry runs out from the corner with amazing speed, then uses his momentum to leap and deliver a momentum-driven punch, which, almost immediately knocks the tango with the SPAS-12 out. Itami takes a more textbook approach, as he runs up to the enemy, proceeds to disarm the tango, separating him from the G36c, an elbow to the torso, then knocks him out with a backhand chop. Damon utilizes his CQB training to the fullest extent, throwing a few jabs here and there, disarming the enemy swiftly, connecting a knee right in the enemy's jaw, then knocking the chap out with a roundhouse. The remaining tango tries to go for a kill, aiming his silenced FN SCAR dead-on to Henry, but, somehow, Henry notices this, despite having his back turned on the hostile, and simply smacks the gun out of his hands. The tango, however, reaches for his sidearm swiftly, an M1911. Henry drives his fist right to the tango's face, but not before he fires a shot with his pistol directly to said fist, although, surprisingly, this does not make Henry flinch at all, as he continued on to deliver a punch that knocked a tooth or two out from the guy's mouth before he passes out. Henry then looks at his fist expecting to see a gunshot wound, only to find nothing but blood from the guy's mouth.

"The hell…" he utters in sheer confusion.

Then he remembers something. Something he may have overlooked. What exactly was he doing inside the vat? What were **they** doing inside the vats? Or, more accurately, what had been done **to them** inside the vats? He has a hypothesis in mind, but he asks a bit more questions to himself. He remembers that the substance's ability to strengthen the physical body should wield somewhat similar results, since they'd be practically small-arms bulletproof, but that was only **with** the suit. How could he have achieved a feat like that **without** it?

Then it struck him. Like lightning would strike a lightning rod. If what he thought is indeed true, then it could either be an improvement or may prove disastrous for them. Vats, scientists, data? What else could've been done to them other than being used as guinea pigs?

But he needs one last strand of proof to prove his idea. And one man has it… He grabs his .500 revolver and kneels near the scientist, taking the duct tape cover off his mouth swiftly, causing much pain on the scientist's end.

"Ouch, hey! What the hell, man!? I didn'—" The scientist's complains are cut short as he looks directly into the barrel of Henry's Taurus Raging Bull .500 revolver.

"Tell me, what the hell did you do with me, with us? What were you doing to us?"

"When our forces recovered you from up top, we were told to use you as subjects for an upgraded type of the substance as an experiment… L-listen man, I-I was just following orders! P-please, I have a family to feed!"

"An upgraded type? What do you mean?"

"We made breakthroughs in our research, which you guys have c-called the Abyss… Unlike your former, regulated and limited version of the substance, the original form of the substance you used was way more powerful than this… However, it would make the specimen go berserk, which is why the destroyers are… distinctive in shape, but you managed to subvert it by controlling the amount of substance entering your body through the suits… Well, in order to create more design-effective units, we created the Substance II, which allowed us to build units in the form of humanoids… while also improving control and abilities… We injected the Substance II into your already substance-tolerant system, which will allow you to operate "abyssal" abilities without your suits… We planned to control you and use you as our trump cards, and to retrieve data for another project as well, but since you escaped… it is no longer possible."

"So you're saying… you basically made us into abyssal units?"

"Technically… yes. However, you still retain your conscious and intelligence, so I'd say you're only part abyssal."

"It should be no problem, right? You have a way to turn us back into normal people, right?"

"At this time… not yet…"

Henry is taken aback at the revelation. Taking a few steps back, he looks at his fists again, focusing on them and thinks to himself. Should he remain in this form, he will no longer be able to live a normal life. He starts feeling fear. Yes, **fear.** Fear of becoming something horrible. Fearing that he may no longer be considered as a human, an ally, a friend, **a brother.** He has always wanted to find his sister, despite that goal being the lesser priority this time… but if he does find her, what use would it be, if he were to become a monster?

With Henry shocked at the news, Damon begins to grasp the situation as well, then noticing the root of it all… the scientist. The scientist's doing has made his comrade shift to a very vulnerable mental state. Enraged by this, he tries to launch himself onto the scientist in a fit of rage, but Itami notices this and holds him down. The growling-like Damon looks straight into the eyes of the scientist while getting held back by Itami, anger in his eyes, and rage fueling his body. Itami merely tries to figure out the best way to handle the situation, as the "improvement" may work for them if played right.

"Listen. We can still work this out. We use this improvement against the enemy, I'll find a way to get us back to normal after this." Itami recommends, trying to calm down the two men.

"But neither you nor even Yashiro know anything more about this Substance II…" Henry replies, in a soft voice, slowly starting to snap back to reality after Itami's recommendation.

"But he does. So don't do anything to him, Damon." Itami utters as he points to the scientist while holding down Damon with his left hand.

"Alright, alright, lemme go." Damon responds, as Itami's lock loosens. "I'm still watching you, though." He says as he points two fingers toward his eyes then towards the scientist.

"So we're gonna use this against its creators… We'll have to deal with this… curse until then... Hey, scientist guy, what can I do with this new upgrade of yours?" Henry asks, returning to his normal, un-shocked state.

"It allows more freedom than the suit-based substance you used… For instance, you can take over any non-substance-covered object and coat it with your own substance, modify the shape of that object, materialize substance into a physical form, but, we modified it a bit to allow **you** to make your own abilities. Experiment with it, go ahead."

After the scientist's explanation, Henry holds his arms out and looks at his palm, closes his eyes and begins to focus. He wants something to appear. He needs something to appear. He **compels** his body to make something to appear. After a moment, a blackish, fluid-like object, possibly the substance, swirls around his palm a bit, then disappears, only to leave behind a small dagger of sorts, visibly coated with the substance. Henry then opens his eyes and spins the dagger with his left arm, and is shocked to learn that the substance-spawned dagger looks, feels, and weighs like an actual metal one.

"Imagine the things I could do with that…" Damon comments, trying to inject some laughter into the tense atmosphere.

"What, you gonna go "Trace on"?" Henry replies, using his knowledge of Damon's personality.

"No, I'm gonna go make myself a ham and cheese sandwich."

"Haha. Whatever floats your boat, man. Anyway, Itami is right. We shouldn't get caught up with this situation. We should use it to the fullest extent and worry about the implications later."

"You should tell that to yourself mate, you looked pretty shaken about the news."

"Just a bit shocked, is all. Hey, scientist guy, any more rooms we should check out?"

"Uh… yeah… the experimental weapons built for abyssal units… you should find them useful…"

"Right. Lead the way."

Holding the scientist in his right arm, the four men head once more into the large corridor, surrounded by metal pillars and roofing. The scientist then stops in another metal-clad door, then proceeds to open it with a push of a button.

"Nice."

Henry finds himself commenting on the sheer firepower contained inside one room… An 8-inch Abyssal naval gun, machine gun mounts, miniature AA guns, sardine can-like depth charges, and many more weapons visibly coated with the Abyssal substance. Turning his head back, Henry spots another room on adjacent to them, with a much bigger metal door than the others.

"What's that room all about?" He asks the scientist.

"I've never been there. It's above my pay-grade."

"Bullshit. Damon, grab one of those breaching charges from the hostiles."

After he gives the order, Damon almost immediately runs back towards the last room they were in. Henry then proceeds to knock on the metal door a bit, thinking about what he may see on the other side. He has a lot of guesses: more weapons, production machinery, escape vessels, but his thoughts are cut short as Damon comes rushing back to them, with 2 breaching charges on his left and right hands. He places the two charges on the door and grabs two detonators from his pocket, then, after taking a safe position behind a corner, proceeds to trigger the charges to explode, spraying a lot of small debris and releasing a small quake-like sensation. The men then get inside the room, covered in smoke, with their guns at the ready, but as the smoke clears, they could not believe what they found…

 _ **What the hell…**_

Meanwhile, on the island of Wake, the landing operation has already commenced, and the first wave has already landed south of the airfield under command of Lt. Sam Ford, a British special operations commander who was supposed to train the JSDF's Special Forces. Instead, he got more than what he bargained for, a full-blown invasion of a hostile-controlled island. Already suppressed by shots from the combined attacks of the newly-discovered Humanoid Chi-class cruiser reinforcements, and the island's Destroyer-tank models, they take cover behind leftover bunker walls from WW2, returning fire with their M4A1's with specialized AB ammo, which proves to be getting less effective. They need serious firepower, which the Stinger portable rocket launcher offers, but even with the lock-on feature, they tend to get dodged by the swift Chi-class light cruiser. They have already split into three groups upon landing, one group to take the airfield, where Ford is at, one group to take the center area, and another to take the remaining area, thus thinning the forces out. Henry's crew had already eliminated some hostiles, but reinforcements just came in recently. Pressed in this situation, he calls for assistance from the attack helicopters sent in by the JSDF, callsign "Valkyries"

"Valkyrie, this is Spearhead Uno, requesting some air support, over!"

"Spearhead One this is Valkyrie One-Three, we have our hands full on the western area, we can't come over to help, over."

"Spearhead this is Valkyrie control, all units are engaged at the moment, standby, over."

" **BLOODY HELL!"** Ford shouts in frustration as the transceiver clicks, then peeks out of his cover and fires a few bursts of his M4 to blow off some steam.

"Hailing Spearhead Uno, repeat, hailing Spearhead One, over."

"Spearhead One receiving, over."

"Spearhead One this is Havoc Zero Five from the American Aeronautic Tokyo Express, coming in to assist you. We have visuals on you, over."

"Bloody good to hear from you yanks. We don't have any visual on you, where are you?"

"You don't have to see us, we just have to see you. Standby , we're engaging enemy hostiles in front of you guys. Humanoids and tanks detected. Starting attack barrage. Danger close, over."

Right after Havoc's transmission, a few whizzing sounds can be heard, right before a huge explosion follows up. The suppressing Abyssal units have been eliminated with a mere three explosions, and there, it becomes apparent to Ford what he's dealing with here…

An AC-130 Gunship.

"Kill confirmed. You are clear to proceed, but be cautious, there are enemy units on the strip and inside the airfield building, repeat, tangos on the strip and the building, over."

"Roger that, Havoc Zero Five. Thanks for the assist mate, over."

"We'll be staying on overhead watch until you can take the airfield, right now it's the primary objective to set up a foothold on the island. Wait, TV operator, can you get me a closer look on the strip?" The gunship's radio is still open, as the operator sends orders to his crew.

"Affirmative. Here's a better view, sir."

"The fuck are those?"

"Looks like enemy drones…" The TV operator utters as the objects come closer to them.

"Ah fuck, those ARE enemy drones. Release those fighter drones and gain AirSup. We can't risk staying in here for too long without fighter cover."

"Havoc. What's happening up there, guys? Over."

"Enemy drones have been spotted being launched from the airfield. We've released the new fighter drones, but we still need to back off from the area.."

"Roger that Havoc, we'll try and find the drones' source down on the ground as well."

"Good luck, man. We're not gonna be too far off the area, we can still provide support with the 105, but don't expect any precise strikes, over."

"Copy, Havoc, I appreciate it mate, over. Spearhead One, on me! Yano, Hyuga, lay down covering fire while we cross!"

Ford's crew then start crossing a stretch of open field towards the airstrip, taking fire along the way, but the Havoc gunship manages to suppress a few of the pesky humanoid ships with its 105mm gun. They finally reach the air control tower building, where they press against the wall before Ford sends out a few orders.

"Yano, Hyuga, on me. Rest of you, find the hangars and destroy any drones you find, over."

The team sent to destroy the drones find themselves under fire by enemies on the strip. They take cover inside one of the closest hangars, firing at the enemy through the hangar's windows. A soldier pulls out a Stinger portable rocket launcher and fires it at one of the cruisers, and due to the close range, the cruiser gets hit, and gets blown to bits by the modified warhead of the rocket. As the Stinger gets reloaded, the other men throw their grenades, but they are not too effective against the cruisers. Noticing that they are wasting time, they split into two groups, the first group remains in the hangar to occupy the enemy, while the others search for the drones. The team tasked with finding the drones crosses the airstrip swiftly as the first team provides covering fire, going inside another hangar, where they find the black, substance-covered drones, same as what Henry and the others encountered in their fight against the mysterious carrier.

"Alright, lets plant the charges and get the hell outta dodge." The team's leader orders.

They then plant their thermite-loaded explosives on a few select drones, aiming for a chain reaction. After they plant the explosives, they run back towards the hangar where the first team awaits, dashing through the strip and dodging the crossfire while the first team assists them with cover fire.

At the same time, the three men then enter the aircraft control building with their M4A1's at the ready, checking corner by corner as they proceed. Every step on the concrete floor makes the men anxious, but they hide it as they remain focused. They finally spot a Chi-class light cruiser with her back turned in a room, and the Lieutenant orders his men to follow the hallway while he takes care of this one. Ford then slowly enters the room and pulls out his Sig Sauer P228 sidearm, then shoots it at her, but she somehow notices this and dodges. She lunges in towards Ford and connects with a spear-like maneuver, but the British spec-op trooper gets out easily by bashing the P228's grip right on the cruiser's head. Recovering from the fall, he then starts going on a CQB stance with his pistol drawn, then, with extreme speed, Ford grabs the dazed abyssal, hits her swiftly with a knee to the jaw, giving her no time to react, then an elbow to the temple, and finally three shots of his AB-loaded pistol straight to the head to end it. He rejoins the two men as they climb on the rooftop of the building through a stairway, getting a vantage point of the airfield, afterwards scanning the area for more hostiles. Right afterwards, Ford's radio beeps, and a voice can be heard.

"Lieutenant Ford, we have found the drones! Over!" One of the men utters with gunshots in the ambience.

"Good job, now destroy them and rendezvous back to the airstrip, over."

"Copy, over."

The hangar suddenly erupts as hundreds of explosions bring it down, due to the chain reaction from the exploding dormant enemy drones. Had they been active, they would've posed a bigger threat; luckily, the ones who had already been activated were shot down by the new fighter drones. As the hangar explodes, the Abyssal units at the airstrip decide to pull out of the area, giving the men at the hangar some relief. Ford's attention is grabbed by the retreating enemy units heading away from the airstrip, possibly to regroup at the center area.

"Havoc, we got runners. Take em down for me."

"With pleasure, sir."

The escaping abyssal units are mowed down by a combination of the 25mm, 40mm and 105mm guns of the AC-130, bathing the abyssal ships in lead and gunpowder as they are reduced to nothing but oozing substance and scrap metal. After the destruction of the Abyssal units, the Havoc operator starts turning towards the center area and sends a message to Ford.

"Spearhead One this is Havoc, we're needed at the center area for fire support, we'll have to leave you for a while, but don't hesitate to ask for help if the situation gets dire for you guys."

"Roger that, Havoc, thanks for the help, over."

"Spearhead One, Spearhead One this is JS Kirishima. Good job taking the airfield. Take some rest and prepare for your next assignment, our infiltration crew's gone M.I.A., last known position was near the center area. HQ wants you to go with Spearhead units Two and Three to take the center area, then go ahead and search for the infiltration crew. Lance One will relieve you of your guard duties on the airfield, over."

"Copy, Kirishima."

Meanwhile, back at the unknown location…

"Holy shit." Henry utters in pure disbelief.

"How the hell did they do this…?" While Damon states in anger.

"Out of all things to use…" Itami scrutinizes the methods of a fellow scientist.

"I heard about this before, but I didn't know this was what we were working on!" The labcoat scientist guy utters.

"Wait, you mean you didn't know what the second project was? And since you heard about this before, what exactly is this?" Henry points towards the vats containing three persons, and the most shocking part about it is that the persons inside the vats are all teenage-like girls in appearance, equipped with some sort of uniforms and battle armors.

"This… is the originally proposed second version of the Augmentation project. Armaments intended for use by select personnel to have the same firepower as a warship. When the project was cancelled due to moral reasons, or at least that's what I've heard, the founders of the "Abyss Project", name taken from your nickname of it, tried to reboot this project. But I've heard there are flaws…

"Flaws such as?"

"The person retains his or her emotions. This may either be a flaw or a very useful addition, so they listed them at both. It is similar to the abyssal process, except with a few modifications. It is somewhat like your augmentation suits, since they are equipped with something that limits the flow of the substance. They called it "riggings." When not equipping the riggings, they live an ordinary life of any soldier or person, since it does not modify the physical appearance of the unit using it, unlike the abyss project, and much like the Augmentation Suits. Unfortunately, the same cannot apply for you, since the difference between this project and the abyss project is huge."

"B-but why are they girls?" Damon asks.

"I've heard that the Y gene was causing trouble for the research, so they used female subjects."

"I know you aren't actually involved in this, but, do you know where they got these girls from?" Itami asks, curious of the girls used in the project

"I've heard that some of them are volunteers."

"Some of them? Where are the others from, then?" This time, Henry asks.

"That… I do not know."

"Hey, Henry, we got some intel here." Damon states as he picks up some papers on a table. Henry then gets the papers from Damon, and starts reading them.

"Kantai Project, huh…" he utters the first paragraph as he begins to read.

 **KANTAI PROJECT**

 **FOR YOUR EYES ONLY: HEAD OF DEFENSE MINISTRY**

 **The KANTAI PROJECT serves as an improved weapons system intended for select personnel, which gives them firepower on-par with a warship. Through neural modifications and physical strengthening, this allows a single person to wield the power of an entire destroyer. The KANTAI PROJECT comes with different types of armament intended for different types of classes, which allows even a few personnel to function as a fleet, thus the name KANTAI PROJECT. The classes are:**

 **[DD]DESTROYER (KUCHIKUKAN) – A light, swift class intended for scouting and anti-submarine operations. Carries small guns and torpedoes, along with depth charge launchers.**

 **[CL]LIGHT CRUISER (KEIJUNYOKAN) –More firepower than Destroyers, but less swift. Useful for ASW, and can be used as leaders of a destroyer squadron. Carries bigger guns than destroyers and more torpedo launchers, as well as depth charges. Modified versions exist (CLT, CLp)**

 **[CA]HEAVY CRUISER (JUJUNYOKAN) – Has more firepower than DD's and CL's. Cannot participate in ASW and has less speed than the light cruiser and destroyer classes. Carries even bigger guns than Destroyers and Light Cruisers, but does not have depth charges. Modified versions exist. (CAV)**

 **[BB]BATTLESHIP (SENKAN) –The heavy hitters of a fleet. Has more firepower than any surface ship. Cannot participate in ASW, but has the best Anti Air and Firepower. Slow, and needs to be covered by faster ships to function effectively. They carry the largest guns any personnel can have, but does not have torpedoes or depth charges (exceptions may exist). Modified versions exist. (BBV, FBB)**

 **[CV]AIRCRAFT CARRIER (SEIKI KUUBO) –Long range, bow wielding personnel which carry a complement of aircraft modeled after WW2-era planes. They can use Dive Bombers, Torpedo Bombers, Fighters, and Scouts. Modified versions exist. (CVL)**

 **[SS]SUBMARINES (SENSUIKAN) –Stealthy, submergible units. Modifications allow them to breathe underwater. They carry a small single gun, but have a deadly torpedo complement. Modified versions exist. (SSV)**

 **Other auxiliary classes may be added, but they are not yet implemented at the time of writing.**

"Intended for the head of defense ministry, huh… that means the government has something to do with this…" Henry utters, a bit puzzled.

"Not just your government. Says here Germany and Italy want a piece of this tech as well. Not long before the Brits and our own US of A come into play." Damon states, as he places more papers he picked up to a table.

"Hey, Miya—eh, Henry, check this out." Itami utters, passing on more pieces of paper to Henry. "That's got details on the three ships we have here. Something about them just scares me a bit."

 **JUNE 4 2011**

 **[CL] CALLSIGN SENDAI**

 **Equipment (Undelivered, will arrive June 18** **th** **)**

 **2x 15.5cm Triple Gun Mount**

 **1x Type Zero Reconnaissance Plane**

 **Named after the WW2 cruiser of the same name. Specializes in night battles. After enough experience, her riggings automatically activate to the next form. Has 2 upgraded forms, the "Kai" and "Kai Ni". Has a liking to night battles and night itself. Has a connection with [CL] CALLSIGN JINTSUU and [CL] CALLSIGN NAKA**

 **[DD] CALLSIGN AKATSUKI**

 **Equipment (Undelivered, will arrive June 18** **th** **)**

 **2x 12.7cm Twin Gun Mount**

 **Named after the WW2 destroyer of the same name, meaning [Dawn] or [Daybreak]. After enough experience, her riggings automatically upgrade to the next form. Has 2 upgraded forms, "Kai" and "Kai Ni". Wants to be treated as a proper lady. The commander is advised that it is wise to do so. Has a connection with sister-ships [DD] CALLSIGN HIBIKI, [DD] CALLSIGN IKAZUCHI and [DD] CALLSIGN INAZUMA**

 **[CV] CALLSIGN ZUIKAKU**

 **Named after the WW2 aircraft carrier of the same name, means [Auspicious Crane] After enough experience, her riggings automatically upgrade to the next form. Currently has only 1 upgraded form, "Kai". Has a connection with sister-ship [CV] CALLSIGN SHOUKAKU, along with [CV] CALLSIGN KAGA, [CV] CALLSIGN KATSURAGI and [CVL] CALLSIGN ZUIHOU.**

"They're named after IJN ships… and there are lots of them." Henry hypothesizes.

"So, we have three "naval personnel" here with us. Sendai, Akatsuki, and… what was that… uh yeah, Zuikaku." Itami utters, pointing at the vats.

"Now how do we distinguish who's who?" Damon asks, then points at the violet-haired girl. "A thousand yen says this is Zu-i-ka-ku." He utters, having a hard time with the pronunciation.

"We don't have time for that… but a thousand? I'm guessing that's Akatsuki, then. Anyway it's pronounced Zuikaku, you _gaijin._ " Henry replies, making fun of Damon.

"Why don't we ask them ourselves?" Itami recommends. "Mr. Scientist… erm… what's your name? It's hard to call you Scientist Guy every time…

"Please, call me Kuro."

"Okay… erm… Kuro-san… can you open the vats, please?" Itami asks, a bit polite.

"No need to be polite to that bastard, Itami." Damon responds with his fists clenched as the scientist walks over to the control panel.

"Hey, hey, calm down muthafuka!" Henry scolds Damon a bit jokingly. "I want him on our side. He's our only lead for now, and I don't want him to be uncooperative because of your shit."

"A-alright man. Whatever you say, then."

Right after their exchange, the clear liquid inside the vats drains, then afterwards, the vats open up, allowing the girls inside to step out of them. They proceed to look around their surroundings with an awkward silence. Henry decides to break it as he and Damon approaches the girls.

"Hello. I'm Henry Miyamoto, these are my comrades Damon Fletcher and Itami Shiro." Henry utters to the violet-haired girl with a cap on, who is shorter than him. Because of this he decides to kneel as he speaks. She then responds, with a sense of pride:

"I'm the 1st ship of the Akatsuki Class, Akatsuki! Make sure to treat me like a proper lady!"

"Sure, sure." Henry responds while he pats the girl's head, turning her face red.

"Hey, what did I tell you! Didn't I tell you to treat me like a proper lady?" she responds as her face turns even more red. Henry simply laughs as he stops. Then, he grins widely, as he turns towards Damon, gesturing his hand.

"Where's my 1K at?" he utters towards Damon, as he begins to stand up.

"Shit, those scientists, they took my stuff." Damon replies as an alibi.

"You owe me a thousand, man." Both men laugh.

Henry then turns his attention towards the girl with brown hair wearing an orange uniform with some distance from Akatsuki, walking towards her slowly. She's not as short as Akatsuki, so Henry doesn't need to kneel again.

"Hello, I'm Henry. The _gaijin_ is Damon, and the other one's Itami. What's your name?" He asks.

"I'm the 1st ship of the Sendai-class light cruisers, Sendai! Hey, hey, tell me, do you like the night?" The cruiser known as Sendai asks enthusiastically.

"Uh, yeah, I like it… it's just so peaceful at night, you know? And it makes or a great time to ambush enemies as well!" Henry replies with the same enthusiasm.

"Yeah! This is great! I have a feeling we'll get along pretty well, Henry-san!" Sendai replies with a chuckle.

Henry then starts to walk on over to the distant, green haired girl, whom he presumes to be the Aircraft Carrier Zuikaku, however as he prepares to talk, she cuts him off.

"So, you're our Admiral? You don't seem to look like one, though."

"What's wrong with me?" Henry asks as he looks down on his torso. "Anyway, I'm assuming that the "Admiral" role means I'm your commander. If so, we three are your admirals, then."

"Yes it does. I'm Fleet Carrier Zuikaku. I look forward to… working alongside you."

"I can feel your hesitation, Zui. I'm Henry, that hothead's Damon and the silent one's Itami. We look forward to working alongside you guys as well."

"Don't call me Zui. Anyways, where's Shoukaku-nee?" The somewhat agitated carrier asks, looking for her sister ship.

"Shoukaku… Shoukaku… ah, yes, your sister ship. We haven't found her yet, but I promise you, we will find her…

And we will retrieve her." Henry replies with a Liam Neeson-esque feel.

"You better." She replies, looking a bit depressed

"Ah, come on. Don't get too depressed! You have your fellow… ships with you here! And, if you really need someone to talk to, you can talk to me, alright?"

"Yeah right, like I'll need to talk with someone like **you**."

"Like I asked earlier, what's wrong with me, Zui?" He asks again, combing his hair with his fingers and dusting his camouflage-themed shirt with his right hand.

"Didn't I tell you to stop calling me that?" The agitated carrier implies. "Anyway, you'll just treat us like **those guys** again…"

"Those guys… must be the scientists and researchers of the project… Anyway, what exactly did they do to you?"

"It's nothing I should be talking to you about." She replies.

"You'll never get over it if you keep it to yourself. Come on, tell me about it."

"I just met you, and you're already asking personal questions about me? You're just my admiral, and that's it."

Henry lets out a sigh. "Looks like I'll have to earn your trust sooner or later, then." The carrier simply lets out a "hmmp"

"First, we need to get out of here." Henry states. "Kuro, where's the exit point?"

"Follow the hallway, there's a staircase that leads back outside to the top."

"So we're underground, huh. Anyways, there's bound to be tons of enemy hostiles up top, these girls don't have their equipment yet, but we have ours ready." Henry utters, clenching his fist. "You girls know how to shoot a gun?"

"Don't underestimate us!" Zuikaku replies.

"Alright, Damon, Itami, give em your guns, we're heading up top."

"Aw, but I like my gun!" Damon protests jokingly.

"Deal with it. Anyways, you have your sidearm. I suggest you do not use any of your abilities. .As Henry speaks, Damon hands his gun over to Sendai while sniffing jokingly, while Itami gives his MP5SD over to Akatsuki. Henry gives his M4A1 SOPMOD to Zuikaku, which she accepts, once more letting out a "hmp", with "Is this all you've got?" written all over her face.

"It may not be that effective against the Abyss, but it should work nicely as suppression weapons. Check your equipment."

"All ready!" The crew utters in unison.

"Alright. Squad, on me. Let's engrave victory on the dawn's horizon!" Henry utters with a huge grin on his face before exiting the room.

"Fucking weeb." Damon utters as he follows.


	8. Live-fire Exercise

**A/N**

 **Just another update. Took long since I was busy with real life. As payment, I made it longer.**

 **FLEET ZERO C.8**

" **Live-fire Excercise"**

 **June 17 2011**

 **Objectives: Capture Wake Island.**

"Come on, let's go." Henry orders as their party climbs the stairway to get above ground, where they notice a small, hatch-like exit point. Henry then orders the crew to stop.

"On second thought, everyone else, stay here. Any objections?" He asks, after ordering everyone to halt. Zuikaku raises her hand.

"Yeah, why are you going alone?" she asks.

"I need to secure some transport for you girls. We can't let anyone else see you."

"And why's that?"

"It's because other scientists and researchers from private sectors or the government would want to get hold of you. Worst case is we all get killed by the lackeys of the ones who developed your weapons systems."

"That so? I'll go with you to help, then."

"Didn't I just tell you the reason why I ordered you to stay here?"

"Yeah, but they won't notice if I wear your gear." She replies as she points her fingers to Henry's helmet, which he picked up at the underground facility before heading out.

"Why do you want to go along with me so bad? Oh, can it be, Zui? Are you _concerned_ of your _admiral's_ well-being?" Henry replies sarcastically.

"N-nothing of the sort!" She replies, flustered. "I just want to help you finish this quick, so we can find Shoukaku-nee faster!"

"Whatever you say, Zui."

"Hey lovebirds, get on with it!" Damon shouts jokingly. Henry then takes off his helmet and camouflage-themed coat picked up in the facility, wearing only his shirt.

"What are you going to do about that, then?" Henry inquires, pointing at Zuikaku's bottom half, as she is wearing a red skirt and boots attached with a rudder and propellers. She takes off the boots, but Henry speaks up again.

"That won't be too convincing, now, is it?" He asks, as he points again at her skirt. She simply responds by pointing at Henry's camo pants.

"What, you expect me to fight in my boxers?" He asks again, albeit jokingly.

"Nah, it's okay, he has another one beneath it!" Damon intervenes, much to Henry's dismay, since it actually is true, as Henry wears Kevlar-padded pants underneath. As such, he starts taking off his pants, but in the middle of it, Damon, once again, interjects with humor.

" _Oh, admiral-, in a place like this…"_ he says jokingly, trying to imitate Zuikaku's voice.

"SHUT UP!" The agitated carrier shouts, and the entire crew, including the other girls and even Henry himself laugh, as the carrier gets mad.

"He's laughing so he actually wants to do it." Damon whispers to Zuikaku, in response, she simply punches Damon in the shoulder. Henry shrugs and laughs at this, as Zuikaku heads out back to the facility to get dressed.

"So, why didn't you want us to use our abilities, Henry?" Damon asks more seriously this time, toning down his voice to avoid getting heard by the girls.

"Same reason. Scientists, researchers, we're going to get experimented on if the public catches word of us, which I'm sure will happen, because an operation this big can't be kept under wraps easily. I'm guessing Admiral Araki or the Defense Ministry will be making a statement later. Speaking of the Defense Ministry…"

"I'm guessing you'd want to pay them a visit?" Itami asks this time.

"Yeah. I want to have some words with the current head."

"Hey, Admiral! Let's go!" Zuikaku, now fully dressed up in military gear while carrying Henry's M4A1 SOPMOD calls, as she climbs up the stairs heading near Henry's position. Henry simply responds with a nod, drawing out his Taurus Raging Bull .500 revolver and opening the hatch. As they emerge, they see themselves climbing from the floor of an unknown building, then, they press on the building's walls near a window. Henry peeks, and sees the JSDF Special Forces engaged against abyssal forces.

"Cavalry's here. We need to find the CO of these guys…" He utters. "Zui, on me. Let's go."

"O-okay!" The carrier responds as she follows.

The two then head out to a small, clear area after the SF troops have already passed, where they notice a carcass of an abyssal destroyer lying on the ground. They pass through, but Zuikaku immediately notices something.

"A-admiral, th-this one is still moving!" she utters in shock.

"Damn, these things don't die easily, do they? Leave it to me, Zui. Stand back." Henry replies, as he begins pulling out a fragmentation grenade he took from the facility. He pulls the pin and moves over to the destroyer, throwing the grenade into its cannon's barrel. He runs along with Zuikaku after doing so, and the carcass explodes, leaving behind a gooey mess of black substance and a few shrapnel. They stand by for a while and rest near a building's wall after destroying the carcass, and they notice an AC-130 flying by on low altitude overhead.

"Well shit, they got an AC-130 with them. They should've used that from the very beginning, then… Hey Zui, what's on your mind?" He asks the carrier, looking up to the sky.

"You're pretty persistent, aren't you, admiral?"

"Please, call me Henry."

"Fine. But only if you stop calling me Zui."

"Hmm? Why? You seem to like it, at least from what I've seen…"

"H-huh? What makes you say that?"

"You weren't telling me to stop calling you Zui for a while now..." Zuikaku simply turns silent at this, a bit embarrassed.

"It's nice to have a nickname, you know?" Henry adds. "Makes you get to know someone a bit better."

"Y-yeah, I guess..." She replies as the AC-130 makes another pass, blowing some wind onto the two. As he takes a small breather, Henry takes notice of Zuikaku's green or grayish hair, intrigued by its mysterious true color. Also, it's tied in twintails, which Henry likes quite a bit. Who doesn't, right? After shaking his head, he sighs, and goes back to resting.

At the same time, Lt. Sam Ford's Spearhead One team moves in on the center area after the Kirishima has given them orders to do so, now being assisted by the attack helicopters, callsign Valkyrie, along with the AC-130 gunship, callsign Havoc. They head on to an area with a couple of buildings, which they use as cover.

"Listen! Take the center area, afterwards, search for the special units, over!" Ford says over the radio, as the men move in.

"Spearhead One this is Havoc, heads up, three tango signatures converging on your position, over."

"ENEMY DESTROYERS!" one of the men shouts, as he spots the three destroyers, possibly from the enemy's reinforcement moving in towards their position.

"Stingers, fire! Rest of you, take cover and lay down suppression fire!" the lieutenant orders, as he prepares his M4A1. After an ammo check, he peeks out of his cover and fires a few bursts from his rifle, then the other men follow suit and fire as well. As the bursts continue, three Stinger rockets get launched, but only one rocket punched through, and two destroyers still remain standing.

"Shit, Reload! Suppressive fire, now!" He orders, as the stinger operators proceed to reload, and the others, along with himself, continue to lay down covering fire. A lucky shot from his M4 pierces one of the destroyer's optics, rendering it unable to see. Unlike the Vulcan MG's, mounted on Henry and the other's suits, which carried modified AB 7.62mm bullets, the M4A1's AB 5.56mm's don't have enough piercing power to perforate a destroyer, thus it can only suppress, or, luckily, disable a unit by shooting it's most vulnerable parts. After a few more bursts, the Stingers finally get reloaded, and are shot, this time, they take out the blinded destroyer. The last surviving one manages to fire a shot, but Ford's and his men's cover keeps them away from the blast. The destroyer then gets taken down, this time, by a precise 40mm strike from the AC-130 gunship.

"Thanks for the assist, Havoc, though, you could've done it earlier. But I'm not in any position to complain, so thanks. Anyways, are there any more enemy units? Over." Ford utters over the com radio.

"Most of them regrouped on the farthest area on the island, probably taking to the seas after a while, over."

"Nice. Alright, this area's clean, move-"Ford's order was cut short by an explosion coming in west of their position.

"Havoc, what was that? Over."

"Two personnel just double tapped an abyssal carcass, I think that was a grenade, over."

"Which team are they in with? Over."

"Not sure… They're out of the formation of your Spearhead One, Two, and Three, over. Their uniforms seem a bit… peculiar as well."

"I'm checking them out, thanks Havoc, out. Yano, Hyuga, on me. Rest of you, take a vantage point and scout the area, we might find the special units around here, somewhere." He orders his troops, as he and his select men head out to the explosion.

The wind blows a small dust storm towards the three-man squadron, commanded by Ford. Carrying their M4A1's, they head on towards the explosion's direction, trying to figure out who those personnel were. Approaching the area, they press to the wall, and Ford peeks out to see two personnel, a man and a woman, leaning on the walls near the abyssal destroyer's carcass, having a conversation.

"You two, get inside that building. If shit hits the fan, cover my ass." He orders, as the two men get inside the building which walls they were peeking from.

"INA-ZUMA!" Ford shouts the assigned "Identification phrase", or in this case, identification word, to the two personnel over the wall, which are none other than Henry and Zuikaku, taking a brief rest. As he does this, he has his M4A1 at the ready, should the personnel be hostile. Henry then takes out a small piece of paper from his pocket, containing a kanji, which he reads.

"KAMI-NARI, ey, wait, that's wrong… erm… IKA-ZUCHI!" Henry responds shouting towards the general direction of Ford, but, unlike the lieutenant, he is not in a hostile stance, as he is visibly unarmed. The lieutenant then starts going out of his cover, but still has his M4A1 aimed towards Henry. As he does this, Zuikaku senses hostility and begins aiming her M4A1 SOPMOD as well, but Henry places his hand towards her gun, signaling her to stop, as Ford begins to talk.

"Identify yourselves." Ford commands, with Henry's head right inside his optics

"Not to be rude, sir, but… you first. If you've been on the same number of battles as me, you'll find that it's hard to trust anyone." Henry says with a tad bit of respect, since he doesn't know the man's rank. As such, he decides to play it safe.

"I know that feel, mate. Lieutenant Sam Ford, SAS, assigned as head of JSDF's Spearhead One unit. You guys?" he replies, slowly lowering his gun.

"Captain Henry Miyamoto, JS Kirishima, assigned to Infiltration Unit One, part of Operation Tomorrow's Edge. We got captured by enemy troops, but we've managed to pull out."

"S-sorry sir!" Ford quickly drops his aiming stance and proceeds to salute Henry, who returns the gesture. He nods at the lieutenant to make him stop saluting. As they both stop saluting, the Lieutenant asks once more.

"Enemy troops, sir?"

"I'll tell you all about it later, mate. And you can drop the formalities, if you want."

"Yes, si—erm… eh… Anyways, I'm sorry for my rudeness earlier…"

"There's no way you could've identified me as a friendly under those conditions, so it's okay." Henry replies. "Listen, we need a secure transport outta here. Our suits have been rendered useless and we've got our hands on some VIP's, recovered some absolutely valuable intel and HQ needs to get it, fast." He adds, while gesturing for Zuikaku to come on closer.

"Okay, sir. I'll inform the Kirishima and have them send some choppers." The SAS Lieutenant grabs his comms and speaks over the microphone. "Kirishima, this is Spearhead One, we've found the special units, and they're requesting for secure transport, over."

"Kirishima copies. We've informed Valkyrie command of your situation… this one's fresh off the mainland, so it may take a while. ValkyrieCom says ETA… 20 minutes. Rendezvous point is on the airfiel- shit, what was that? SITREP, now!" The radio operator's voice can be heard right after an explosion, asking for a situation report.

"Kirishima? Kirishima, do you copy? What happened?" Ford asks, and now Henry is getting more concerned about what happened to his ship's crew as well."

"We got hit with a torpedo on the stern! Rudder's okay, hull integrity just took scratch, over."

"Hey, Ford, can I borrow the com's for a second?" Henry asks, as Ford gives him the earpiece. "Kirishima, this is Henry, the hell you guys doing?"

"S-sir! It's good to hear from you!"

"Don't worry about me, worry about yourselves! Sitrep, now!"

"We got hit with a torpedo on the stern, sir! Trivial damage, but more torps are coming in from the starboard!"

"Didn't we go over this? Listen, on my mark, deploy a fan of torpedoes towards starboard. Aim them to go right in the middle of the torps trajectory."

"No more spinning shit, sir?"

"AIN'T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT! Anyway, listen. Distance between each torps?

"The spread is increasing, but our torpedoes' explosion radius should still catch up to them."

"Alright. Launch torpedoes, now! You know what to do next, alright?" At Henry's command, the acting commander of the JS Kirishima gives the order to launch torpedoes towards the middle of the trajectory of the enemy's torpedoes, and once they settle in right in the center, he sends the order for remote detonation, causing some huge underwater explosions that send jets of water up to the sky.

"WHOOO-WEE!" the commander shouts over the coms, which Henry hears.

"Calm down, man. That's only half the battle. How many escorts you got with you?"

"I got 5 in my sector, but some of them are too far away, I only got two in my vicinity."

"Alright then. Line abreast, fire a couple of torpedoes towards their general direction. I'm guessing those are enemy subs again."

"Visual link confirms sir, Ka-class submarines again."

"Copy. Same tactics, track em and blast em. No need for the "Metalmouths" this time."

"Okay sir, torpedoes, San, Ni, I-chi, UTE!" The commander counts down as the Mark 1 Torpedoes are launched towards the general direction of the submarines once more, relying on their proximity fuzes to deliver. Three detonations can be seen from the ship, and, already, the sonar contacts disappear, seemingly sunk by the attacks.

"Looks like it was only a small wolfpack. Thanks for the help, boss."

"Alright, Ford, that dealt with Kirishima's problems. What's our next move? We need that transport." Henry asks the lieutenant.

"I think the Lance units had some APC's with them."

"Yeah, let's get to the airfield on foot, and then return back to where the VIP's are at with the APC."

"I'll need to brief my men for a bit first, sir."

"Go ahead." After Henry allows him to do so, Ford heads on to Yano and Hyuga, who were still inside the building.

"Yano, take control of Spearhead One. I'm going to escort our special units to the airfield, then back to HQ, since I'm tasked for that, after all. Hyuga, if Yano starts with his mindless banter again, you have my permission to punch him. That's all, good luck."

"Let's go." Henry orders, as Ford starts running up to him. "Zui, tell the others to prepare their stuff, we're moving out after we come back."

"Y-yes sir!" She replies, as she starts hurrying back to the facility.

"So, who was she?" Ford asks as he and Henry start walking towards the airfield, with dust kicking up on their faces as well.

"One of the VIP's. She insisted to help me find you guys, so I allowed her to tag along."

"Hmm, if you don't mind me asking, sir, where is she from?"

"Checking her out, eh? Hahaha. I'm gonna tell you all about the VIP's later once we're secure, it's the least I could do since you helped us out on getting the exfil chopper.. Anyways, I don't think your personalities would be exactly what I'd call a good match, you know."

"Hmm, why's that?"

"I thought you were interested in all of the VIP's? It seems you're interested in just one of them!" Henry utters with a laugh, trying to get to know the Lieutenant better.

"N-no, sir! S-she's the only one I met from all of them, after all… Ah! I hope I'm not intruding on your personal stuff, sir."

"Personal stuff? Ah. I see what you mean. Nah, it's not like that I mean, come on, we just met, after all. Also, I take pride in the fact that I act professionally at work. Usually, anyways."

"It's okay if it's the truth, sir. Falling for someone in first sight is real, after all."

"I'm guessing you'd know that first-hand, haha! Anyway, I told you, I'm a usually professional person. But hey, nobody can stop me if I got something for her, eh? Unless you have something to say, of course."

"N-n-not at all, sir! W-why would you t-think that I would protest?" 

"Call me Henry. And you can drop the formalities; I'm not some sort of power-hungry Gunnery Sergeant. Anyways, I'm just playing with you. Anyone can see from a mile away what you're feeling. No worries, but here's a little tip. Get to know her better, alright? Judging a book by its cover is a pretty common mistake, after all. You seem pretty touchy about that subject, so let's leave it at that, alright?"

"You already know it, so… Y-yes sir… I-I mean… Henry."

"So, you're SAS, huh. How'd you end up in this situation?"

"I was supposed to help train the JSDF's Special Forces units in airborne operations, and then we were informed about some sort of training operation, which boggled me since the trainers were included as well. Then we got briefed at the Yokosuka Naval Base, which somehow had some damages, and there we got told that what we're about to do is no training op… and here we are."

"So you don't know about the attack on Yokosuka?"

"What? Yokosuka got attacked? By these abyss… things, I'm guessing?

"Yeah. Though the government dismissed it as a misfire during an automated weapons test. Not the best excuse ever, I know, but the press still bought it. Actually pretty helpful of them. Luckily, we didn't get any casualties, so it helped making that excuse authentic."

"I see… Well, we're here. There's the airfield, mate. And there's our APC. Stay here, while I borrow it from these guys." Ford utters as he runs up to the airfield, talking to a man, possibly the driver, then commandeering the APC, driving towards Henry's location with speed.

"Hop in."

Henry then gets in the APC's front seat, next to Ford. The old-looking APC sports no weapons, but allows the crew inside to shoot through the vehicle with its firing ports. Practical, but still, pretty primitive in this time and age…

"Drive straight here, where we were last time, then make a left. You should find a small building there. They should be waiting for us, since Zui should've told them already."

"Zui? Oh right, that girl. Her name's Zui?"

"It's Zuikaku, actually. I tend to call her that, even if she says she doesn't want to be called that. But I think she likes it though. You know what? Imma introduce you to her and the entire crew later. Makes things easier if you know them first-hand."

"Why? If I interpreted the situation right, this should be top-secret, yes?"

"You already know about it. I don't want to leave you with half-assed information, so, I guess I might tell you everything, maybe even include you as part of the team for protection, or something like that. You could act as our man on the ground, and you could definitely help us if you've got contacts with the SAS."

"That's fine with me. At least there's a few perks if I join…"

"What perks?"

"I-i-i… umm… can get better by training with you!" Ford goes out of his way to make a clearly visible alibi.

"Training? Fine with me, but I'm pretty sure you've got ulterior motives. Not the sabotage-kind… but something else."

"I can't hide anything, it seems. Though I sincerely hope I'm not stepping on your personal stuff, though."

"What?" Henry asks, failing to hear the statement fully.

"Ehh… nothing, never mind, sir… I'll just keep driving."

"There's the turn. Take a left." Ford then turns left, and sees human figures waiting for them. He then sees someone waving, and upon closer look, it is revealed to be Sendai, along with Akatsuki and Zuikaku near her, and the rest of the crew, Damon, Itami, and a gagged Kuro.

"That's them, isn't it?" he asks, as Henry starts to exit the APC. He follows as well. 

"That's them alright."

"More girls? I'm starting to think you're trying to build a harem instead!"

"I wish." Henry replies, as both men start to laugh.

"Found a new comrade, it seems?" Damon asks, carrying some sort of sheath or scabbard as he leans on over to the APC's front door, looking at Henry.

"This is Lieutenant Sam Ford. SAS, assigned to the JSDF. And the accent's authentic, Damon."

"Nice to meet you, mate. I'm Captain Damon Fletcher. Call me Damon."

"Same here, mate. Lieutenant Sam Ford, SAS 22nd Regiment, but I'm in the JSDF for now. It's nice to see a fellow mate serving the Queen around these parts."

"He's American, Sam. Don't be fooled." Henry intervenes.

"Bloody Yank deceived me!" the lieutenant utters in shock and awe, at how accurate the American's British accent was.

"What did I tell you, Damon? I knew that voice of yours could pass SAS. Come on everybody, hop in the APC. Damon, you drive, Akatsuki, you want the front seat?"

"Yes, yes!" The purple-haired destroyer responds enthusiastically.

Everyone then gets inside the APC and sit down at the foam-covered metal seats. Henry and Ford sit together along with everyone else at the back, positioned on the seats nearest to the driver. Directly adjacent to them are the girls, with Zuikaku staring intently at the new guy. The engine starts and awkward silence ensues, but it gets broken by Damon, who asks Henry a question.

"Yo, where we going?"

"Back to the airfield, man."

"Right'o. I did think I saw an airfield earlier…" Damon responds, and the APC heads on to the airfield.

"Don't get us lost, now." Zuikaku adds.

"I know, I know…"

"Anyway guys, after giving it a lot of thought, I've decided to add Lieutenant Sam Ford here to the crew. He knows about us, so we need to make sure he gets protected at all costs. Anyways, I hope everyone's gotten along with each other now? Sendai, how's it feel being with us so far?"

"It's fun! Everyone, especially Damon-san is fun! And Itami-san may be a bit too silent, but when he cracks a joke, it's really funny!"

"Yeah, you should've been with us during Itami's joke session, man, the guy has talent. Even that Kuro guy had a fit of laughter as well, despite being gagged, that is."

"Sure, sure… now, eyes on the road! And… what the hell did you do to Kuro?" Henry replies, as he starts taking off the ropes off of the scientist. "You don't just tie VIP's up, Damon. This ain't some BDSM shit you usually watch. You're gonna leave the guy with PTSD shit."

"Alright, alright, sheesh, no need to stain my rep in front of them."

"Well, Akatsuki, how's it going for you?"

"It's nice here, everyone is friendly, but I still need to be treated more like a proper lady!"

"As expected, haha." Henry replies. "What about you Zui? Especially with me, how's your experience been as of late?"

"Well… I-I guess… it is a bit nicer here, compared to the last admirals…"

"See, told you you'd get used to that nickname." Henry adds, trying to avoid touching the subject of Zuikaku's past, as he intends to discuss that with her later. Personally.

"But still… you still need to find Shoukaku-nee!"

"Yeah, We'll find Shoukaku for you, sooner or later. I'm guessing we have to retrieve all of your comrades, after all. We can't let you girls fall into the wrong hands. But if some of your comrades are already under their control… I will try my best to help them out. In the meantime, since we're having good starts now, though I can't say the same for Zui a bit earlier, I want everyone to get to know Lieutenant Ford. Especially you, Zui."

"Why, especially me?"

"No particular reason. Probably just because of my assumption that you're the one who's hard to get along with."

"Hey, What's that supposed to mean?!"

"N-nothing." Henry replies jokingly with a big grin on his face, looking towards Ford.

"Well… uhm… Zuikaku… I'd definitely… like to know you better… well, not just you, but all of you! Don't get me wrong now, eh?" Ford adds.

"I'm fine with it, as long as you don't try to pull any funny stuff on us!"

"What, she learned that in their training, too? Seriously, funny stuff? What's that supposed to be?" Damon asks, jokingly.

"Instructions unclear." Ford replies jokingly as well.

"Sheesh! It's just that I think you guys would have a hard time keeping it professional, and that would hinder our combat abilities…"

"Come on, Zuikaku, they're not that bad, now, are they?" Sendai comes to the defense of the three men.

"Yeah! They're good men… I think! "Akatsuki joins in as well.

"Don't reply if you're not sure!"

"Hey, I don't know your definition of being unprofessional, but we'll try to live up to your expectations." Henry adds.

"Tch, But I'll still expect you guys to pull something off. It's in your nature."

"Ouch." Itami silently but jokingly comments, making the four men laugh…

"Welp… looks like we got…" Damon then prepares for another of his antics.

" **SHOT THROUGH THE HEART!"** The driver shouts, making the Henry and Ford, who know this song, grin.

" **AND YOU'RE TO BLAME!"** The three men now shout in unison, then pointing towards Zuikaku who merely stares with "what the hell are you doing" written all over her face. Afterwards, the men burst into laughter, as the APC starts to pull over near the edge of the airfield.

"Whoa. Didn't notice we were here already." Damon comments.

"Wait, don't get out of the APC. Let's wait for the chopper."

"Valkyrie Command this is Spearhead One, what's the status on the special unit's exfil chopper? Over."

"Ah, right. It should already be there, forgot to inform you. They landed at least 5 minutes ago. I'm giving the crew your freq. over."

"Thanks ValCom. Spearhead One, out."

"Spearhead One this is Black Hawk helicopter callsign Wagner, operating under ValCom, ready to pick you up. We're near the farthest hangar. We understand that everything we see and hear during this exfil shall be kept secret."

"You got that right, Wagner, heh, nice name." Henry responds, as the APC starts going towards the Black Hawk helicopter near the place they had mentioned. They then park adjacent to the Black Hawk's sliding doors.

"Listen. Let the girls go in first, we screen their approach, then we go in ourselves. Got that?"

"Yes sir!" The crew responds in unison.

Then, the men form a line formation near the helicopter, their form somehow resembling that of a government official's guards. The girls pass through the men's screen, then the men themselves hop aboard the Black Hawk helicopter, letting the girls occupy the seats, while they sit down on the metal floor of the chopper. The helicopter's rotors start whirring and turning, the doors get closed, the red lights turn on, and liftoff ensues. As the helicopter starts to gain altitude, Henry talks to Zuikaku, sitting right above him.

"Listen, Zui."

"Yeah? What is it now?"

"I'll be talking to you in private later when we land."

"He'll probably ask you to take the burn back, haha." Damon adds, and he gets a stare from Henry, indicating his serious intentions.

"Y-yeah.." She timidly replies.

"So, you guys have more friends now, eh?" The pilot of the black hawk speaks up using his headset, only for the crew to recognize that it was the pilots that dropped them from the infiltration mission earlier, and it looks like they've come to pick them up as well.

"Ah, it's the pilots from before! So I guess our little soundtrip earlier influenced your callsign, haha." Henry speaks, while he and the pilots laugh.

"You guys again? Looks like the beers you owe us are going to get bought tonight!" Damon replies with his headset as well as he sees them.

"It sure will. Anyway, Fleet Zero does indeed sound epic, if you think about it."

"Ah right, our name. Yeah, it definitely does." Henry replies.

"JS Kirishima to all units, more enemies have been spotted regrouping off the far coast, they seem to be retreating, over- wait, hold that thought… enemy reinforcements have been spotted nearing the island again. Looks like just a few more destroyers… and… uh… what the hell is that, operator?" After the Kirishima's radio operator's confusion, Henry asks the pilots to link his headset with the helicopter's radio.

"This may seem weird at first, but does it have tentacle-like things?" Henry asks the Kirishima.

"Yeah. And it has an eye that looks like I'm watching Kuroko no Basuke all over again."

"I know what it is. And it's fucking dangerous, mind you."

"This is AC-130 Gunship Havoc, we heard your traffic, moving in on the enemy pocket."

"Havoc, it's dangerous, do not go in, repeat, DO NOT GO IN!" Henry replies with a sense of urgency, since he is sure that the enemy is the carrier they faced and damaged before, and it has been repaired… somehow.

"This is Gunship Havoc, turning back as ordered. We'll still be at the immediate area if you need us, over."

"Roger that, Havoc, thanks for complying. Pilot, take us to the enemy pocket."

"What? Are you sure we're gonna be safe out there?"

"Probably. We're just gonna fly by. Got any weapons in this bird?"

"There's a .50-cal sniper rifle round back. It should be in a case."

"Damon, grab the rifle, will you. And Zui, hand me the M4." Henry orders, as Zuikaku and Damon proceed to do their tasks. Henry then slings the M4A1 SOPMOD from Zuikaku, and takes the Barrett .50 Caliber Sniper Rifle out of the case, which also contains magazines marked into different categories, Anti-personnel, Armor-piercing, and High-explosive.

"It doesn't have those fancy AB bullets or something you guys have, but those normal armor piercing bullets should have enough power to penetrate those vessels, right?" One of the pilots adds.

"We'll just have to see, then." Henry replies, looking at the .50-caliber.

"G-guys, we've got visual contact on the enemy reinforcements, over." The pilot utters over his mouthpiece, informing the crew.

"Alright. Slide us a bit to the left; get me a clear view of the enemy fleet, over." Henry orders, as he begins to kneel and loads the magazine with Armor Piercing bullets, which Henry thinks would be the next best thing against the carrier, other than the AB.

"What are you gonna do, sir?" Ford asks, staring at the sniper rifle with a bit of concern, while the Black Hawk banks a bit to the left.

"I'll just do a classic assassination." The captain answers jokingly with a smirk.

"That's them." Damon, near Henry's left side utters, pointing outside the Black Hawk's opened doors, to some figures on the sea.

"Got it. Let them get to the shore… that carrier's probably ordered her drones to hunt down Havoc since she's probably detected them, so my window opens up once they land. Damon, spot for me."

"How the hell am I supposed to spot for you without optics?"

"Nevermind then." After their little exchange, Henry begins to hold his breath as the carrier and her escorts begin to land on the shore. The I-class' treads start to deploy upon contact with the island's white sand, while the carrier simply begins to walk. While waiting for the right opportunity, Henry decides to go prone on the helicopter's floor, just below the helicopter's bipod-mounted M249 SAW near the door, deploying the .50 caliber rifle's bipod, pulls the bolt, then recalibrates his aim.

"Hey, I might not have optics with me, but I can tell you for a fact that the wind's pretty strong, just look at that tree... You can wait for it to die down, but they might be gone when that happens." Damon recommends.

"Stop sounding like MacMillan. Anyway, I know what I'm doing." Henry replies with his eyes on the prize.

"At this distance, you might have to take the Coriolis Effect into account…"

"Do you seriously have to sound like MacMillan?"

"Hey, just offering you a piece of advice, man. I'm not good at handling a sniper rifle myself, but I know the basics." After Damon's answer, the carrier's drones arrive from an unknown direction and begin to orbit around her, just like a CAP. This obstructs Henry's sight, forcing him to wait for a few more minutes.

"Damn, where'd they come from? Steady, mate. Don't do anything stupid."

Right after Damon finishes, the monster's head-like thing on the carrier's head begins to open up, and the drones begin to enter it as well. During this procedure, the carrier pauses for a while, and as her drones "land", the group then starts to move again towards the airfield's direction.

"Sir, they're headed for the airfield… we have to make a move, fast…"

"Alright… Stabilize the chopper…" Henry replies, now having a distant visual of the carrier. It's a hard shot to take, as she is surrounded by 5 I-class destroyers, and a single miscalculation will make Henry's shot fail. And the carrier group may either retreat, or they may hut down Henry's black hawk. He cannot allow anything like that to happen. He gives compensation for wind speed and the Coriolis Effect, places his finger on the trigger, taking one last glance, closes his eyes, and pulls the trigger. The blast noise from the .50 caliber forces the girls to cover their ears, but the battle-hardened veteran pilots and men merely stare at the carrier's direction, hoping for good results. Henry sees the action from above; he carefully tracks the bullet's path, formulated to counteract the effects of the wind's speed and the Coriolis, which, according to his predictions, should head straight to the carrier's temple. He deduces that this shot will definitely put the carrier down, despite not being loaded with an AB bullet, however, as he looks on, one of the I-classes seemingly detected the shot and speeds up, catching Henry's hi-powered 50-caliber bullet. The destroyer gets stopped in its tracks as it falls to the ground, while the carrier emerges unscathed.

" **Bollocks!"** Henry shouts, pulling the bolt again as he prepares for a follow-up shot. He quickly looks through his scope and finds the carrier, now looking left and right, trying to find their attacker. Henry focuses on her head once more, then, as he prepares to set up the compensation for wind speed and the Coriolis, the carrier looks straight at Henry through the scope, her damaged eye, blazing yellow staring right at Henry. This shocks Henry and sends a weird feeling through his back, for she can see him even at such distance and that their eyes meet through the scope. However, this is not what shocks him the most; it's the _chills_ he gets as he looks on. This prompts him to pull the trigger prematurely, causing him to miss the second shot, as the bullet hits the ground beneath the carrier, which remains unfazed. The enemy carrier's head then proceeds to open up once more, releasing three more drones, heading straight towards the helicopter. The remaining I-classes fire their main guns with flak-like projectiles towards the helicopter's general direction as well, though they are not too accurate.

"Shit, pilot, get us back to the airfield, now!" Henry orders, standing up swiftly, and stowing the .50-caliber rifle away in the back without placing it back in the case in a sense of urgency. He prepares his M4 and shoots a burst, but the drones simply shake off the normal 5.56mm's.

"Hold on, it's gonna be a bit shaky!" The pilot comments, as they turn towards the airfield's direction.

"Sir! Enemy drones coming in, three o-clock!" The other pilot reports, a bit shaky at that.

"I got this!" Damon cuts in and heads straight for the M249 SAW tripod-mounted Machine Gun near the helicopter's right side, loading up the gun with a fresh box of ammo, then, set his sights on the incoming enemy drones.

"This ain't gonna be like last time."

The American captain utters as he holds down the M249's trigger, tracking the drones' evasive paths. Unlike their earlier engagement against the enemy drones, this time, Damon is scoring much more hits, but what he doesn't know is that he is subconsciously using an Abyssal passive skill, making his movements and perception speed faster. Despite firing a non AB bullet-loaded gun, its power compensates for it, and within just a few seconds, the enemy drone squadron has been eliminated, and the helicopter has evaded the carrier's attack range.

"Nice shooting _partner!_ " Henry praises Damon with a Wild West-like accent.

"That's racist, man." The American replies.

"Wagner this is Havoc, be advised; enemy vessel has ceased movement. It may be retreating, over."

"Copy that, Havoc. Thanks for the heads up. Hope you don't mind, but can you scan the surrounding area for us? We don't want the forces down there to get bushwhacked, over." Henry orders over his comms, taking a seat on the metal floor.

"Havoc receives and understands. Carrying out orders. Out."

"Yo. Still feeling bad about the failed shot?" Damon notices his comrade feeling down a bit, and thus, tries to cheer him up.

"Yeah. I thought it'd be done with. The second shot was supposed to do it, but…"

"You flinched. It happens, mate, don't worry about it. We'll get her next time. Anyways, forgot to give this to you earlier, but this should cheer you up." Damon then takes something from the back of the chopper, presumably something he snuck in there unnoticed. Taking it out, it is revealed to be a sheathed white-hilted katana with a common hilt design, then, he throws it to Henry, who immediately catches it, and unsheathes it for a while. It was the Abyssal Substance-imbued Katana he carried in his former suit's sheath, and was used in the first fight against the enemy carrier. It was taken from Henry's possession in the facility, but he did not find it.

"Thanks man. Where and when'd you find this?"

"Went back to the facility since I was kinda bored waiting for your transport, honestly. Tied up those spec ops-like guys and that guard we knocked out before, took a tour of the armory a bit, and found your katana on the table."

"Well, thanks man. I thought I lost th-"

"Wagner, this is USS Fitzgerald, be advised, scout drones report sonar contact near your area. We are responding, over."

"Wagner, this is Havoc, we heard your traffic, and our systems detect sonar contact as wel, that's a sub, over."

"What, another Abyss submarine?" Damon receives and responds, seeing as the sender is the ship he commands.

"We are waiting for confirmat- Wait… shit…! **Wagner, be advised, that's no Abyssal vessel, it's a military-grade submarine, repeat, size indicates that that's a military submarine! HQ hasn't told us that they will provide submarine support though, whatever it is, be careful!"**

"Maybe it's Admiral Araki taking a closer look at the OP?" This time, Itami speaks.

"Nah, I don't think it's him." Damon replies.

As the two men share their opinions, Henry remembers something from the facility.

" _get out of here with the_ _ **second submarine**_ _with a couple of cruiser escort."_

What popped in his mind was a quote from the mysterious man talking to Kuro, while Henry was in the vats.

If Kuro was supposed to escape in the **second** submarine, then that must mean that the mysterious man is inside **another** submarine, and that may be him!

"Kuro… the guy you were talking to earlier before I broke free… Is that him?"

"P-possibly…"

"I knew it… Fitzgerald, this is Captain Miyamoto, JS Kirishima. Send a drone to track that sub."

"Already on its way sir… wait… unknown submarine is emerging, repeat, unknown submarine is surfacing!" The Fitzgerald's operator reports.

Meanwhile, in the unknown submarine…

"I see… They have one of our researchers." A grey-haired man sporting a mustache and donning a monocle, clad in a uniform resembling that of a general's utters in English, having a thick, European accent, hinting that English isn't his first language. As he says this, he looks in one of the submarine's high-pressure tolerant windows, staring into the sea.

"Ja sir. Actually, the persons onboard that helicopter can be considered our test subjects, which we captured earlier. I oversaw the start of their… conversion process. Because of their acquisition of abyssal augmentations, should they continue to fight us, they may pose a dangerous threat. We have lost contact with a few of our best men we sent in to their location, but that's not all. What's worse is they have one of our… _schiffmadch- erm... kanmusume._ " Another man, wearing a black suit with a grey undershirt, a black tie and an unbuttoned black coat responds, standing behind the monocle-donning man.

"Then… you know what to do… Kerry."

"Ja." The man known as Kerry, possibly an alias, simply responds, as he starts to walk through the submarine's hallway of sorts, heading towards its armory as the submarine begins to surface. There, he picks up a very peculiar weapon…

A FIM-92 Stinger.

"Wagner, Unknown submarine has fully surfaced and is clearly visible. What are your orders?"

"Leave them be for now, Fitzgerald." Henry replies, as their helicopter still heads on towards the airfield, still a bit farther away. However, as they pass through the submarine, rapid beeping can be heard inside the helicopter, which results in the girls causing a bit of a ruckus. Sendai, woken up from her sitting sleep, unnerved by the sound, asks the pilot.

"Hey, what is that noise?" She asks.

"We've been locked-on! Looks like a rocket!"

"W-what!? SHIT!" Henry answers this time.

"What do we do, sir?"

"Head inland, now! Doesn't matter if it's not in the airfield's direction, just get us out of the water!"

"Copy!"

"Wagner, be advised; a possible hostile has been spotted on the submarine's deck, carrying a handheld portable rocket launcher, possibly a 92 Stinger. We recommend getting out of there as soon as possi- shit! Wagner, rocket launch confirmed, repeat, rocket launch confirmed! Evasive actions, now! Get out of the area!"

"Wagner, this is Havoc, we're too far off, we cannot assist, over."

The Fitzgerald and Havoc AC-130 report urgently at the same time, as they spot the coat-wearing man firing the Stinger on the helicopter's direction. During this time, Kuro looks out of the helicopter's door, somehow unfazed by the incoming rocket.

"That's Kerry… he's the guy in the facility earlier… he's one of the organization's brass… and he's a professional assassin as well, or so I've heard."

"The organization, you mean the guys behind the Abyss, right!?" Henry asks, peeking out of the chopper as well.

"Yes."

"Sorry to interrupt sir, but… evasive maneuvers won't cut it! We're going to get hit!"

"Choose the spot with the least possible damage! Everyone, brace for impact!" As Henry orders this, the pilot's spin the helicopter rightwards, catching the rocket with its tail rotor. The impact makes the girls in the helicopter shout, blows off the rotor and makes the helicopter lose altitude, as it is now unable to sustain its weight, thanks to the loss of the tail.

"Wagner, this is Fitzgerald, we detected an explosion on your position! Sitrep, now! I repeat, gimme a s—" The Fitzgerald's message gets cut off by static as the helicopter loses altitude, possibly from damage to the antenna.

"Mayday, mayday! This is Callsign Wagner, losing altitude… hang on!" While the helicopter slowly spins to the ground, Henry notices that everyone is ready for a crash, except for Zuikaku. Sendai and Damon hold onto the rails together, Itami and Ford are helping Akatsuki out and Kuro is closing the open doors to avoid anyone falling off. However, the green-haired aircraft carrier sits on the edge of the helicopter's seat near the door, shivering, clearly scared.

"Shoukaku-nee…" The carrier utters slowly. As Henry notices this, Damon gestures his head towards Zuikaku's direction, signaling him to go and help her. Henry then slowly takes a seat beside Zuikaku, and shockingly, applicable to both sides, hugs the crying carrier, wrapping his arms around her, seemingly to protect her, while patting and rubbing her head to calm her down a bit.

"I may not be your Shoukaku-nee… But… I'll still protect you."

Henry keeps this stance around Zuikaku even as the helicopter starts losing more altitude. The spinning surroundings, flying debris, and dizzying turns mean nothing to Henry right now, for this is his duty. This is something that he needs to do. Henry expects himself to be rejected or at least badmouthed for his actions by Zuikaku herself, but after a while, the carrier wraps her own arms around Henry as well, sniffing, and seemingly having calmed down.

Then, the helicopter finally crashes onto the ground, seemingly skating through the ground a few meters until it finally stops. The tail is gone, the main rotors are wrecked, and the doors are destroyed wide-open. The helicopter itself is a bit tilted to the right side, possibly due to the spin. The helicopter's passengers are thrown across the cockpit as well, sent flying by the sheer impact. After the crash, Damon wakes up first and starts a head count on the men and the girls on the floor and the chairs and starts assessing the situation, but, as he checks on the pilot cockpit, he is shocked to see blood splatters all around the glass. The two pilots have been impaled by their own chairs; sharp metal bars stick out near their lower torso, still dripping with blood. True, foam-covered metal chairs have much more strength, but in a crash like this, damaged chairs might be the ones that actually kill the pilots, should the crash let them live. Damon then checks for their pulses, and luckily, they are both still alive, but they are truly in pain. One of the pilots awaken with blood dripping from his mouth, a bloody metal bar sticking out from his body, and a bloodied uniform, noticing that he is wounded, and is unable to move. Damon, concerned about him, moves up towards his position.

"Don't move; let's wait for rescue teams to pick us up…"

"Not to worry… my friend… I won't die yet… I have yet… to buy you guys… a couple of drinks…"

"That's the spirit, hang in there." Damon replies with a laugh, trying to lift the wounded man's mood.

Henry, on the other hand, wakes up with a seemingly unconscious Zuikaku wrapped around him, her greenish hair falling straight towards his shoulders. This makes him a bit worried, but after checking her breathing and pulse, he assures himself that she's just fine; she may have just been knocked unconscious from the force of the impact. Despite the awkward position they are in, lying on the floor, Henry moves away a couple of hanging bangs from Zuikaku's face, revealing her soft-looking, cute sleeping face, as he himself would say. It somehow reminds him of his lost sister. His hands are still near her forehead, and Damon, coming out from the cockpit, sees this, and once again, attempts to liven up the mood through a couple of jokes.

"Cute..." Henry meekly utters.

"Dammit, Henry, seriously, at a time like this? You serious, mate? Even in a helicopter crash, you're taking advantage of someone?"

"Shut up and go check on the others, will you? Anyway… Not. A. Single. Word, Fletcher."

"Alright then, Mr. I-like-sleeping-girls."

As the men have an exchange of laughter, this wakes up Zuikaku, who notices that Henry, her admiral's hand, is stroking her hair. What does this mean? She asks herself. Though he did help her calm down during the helicopter's descent, isn't this too much? And although she does not necessarily think of Henry as a lecherous man, she cannot help but react to such closeness, which she has definitely not experienced from anyone else other than a blurry memory of her fellow ships, so for an admiral of hers to do that…

"Umm… Admiral… what do you… think you're doing…?" She asks with a sleepy and somewhat out-of-character voice, clearly blushing, and looking downwards, slowly taking her arms away from Henry.

"Hm?" Henry asks, nonchalantly, not noticing that his hands are still twirling and stroking some of her hair. "A-ah, sorry..." He adds as he quickly notices his fault, taking his hand away from Zuikaku's soft green hair. "Y-you just r-reminded me of someone, is all… I-I couldn't help but…" After saying this, Henry does something he's rarely ever done: **blush.**

"Well, well, well… The mighty Captain Miyamoto, unflinching in the heat of battle, the great tactician, the "Grand Hybrid" of Yokosuka… is actually blushing? I can't believe my eyes! What, you're gonna tell me girls aren't your forte? Hahaha!" Damon, who sits down near the both of them, teases Henry a bit, which agitates the cool-headed captain quite a bit. Itami, who's already woken up unnoticed after Damon's headcount, then adds some comments.

"What a way to ruin the moment." The usually silent combat researcher utters, opening up to the crew.

"Nah, he's actually glad I did that, spared him from awkwardness, am I right?" Damon replies, shouting towards Henry. The Japanese-American captain remains agitated, and, having had quite enough of the embarrassment, gets serious.

"Alright. That's enough laughter for now. Damon, wake everyone up, we need to move out."

"Actually, the two pilots are wounded, they're not gonna be able to get out of here."

"Okay then. Change of plans. Wake everyone up and let's find a way to call for reinforcements. Those guys won't let us go easily after they've made the effort to surface their submarine just to shoot us down."

"Gotcha."

"Anyways… Zui… I'm sorry about earlier, okay? I-it's just that I kinda like doing stuff like those."

" **HAIR FETISHIST!** " Damon shouts teasingly, which makes Henry raise his fist as if to punch him, jokingly as well.

"A-anyway, after this, I hope I can make it up to you… somehow"

" _Who says you need to apologize…"_ She replies very quietly with her head looking down, as if talking to herself. True, Zuikaku has only been taken care of by Shoukaku, her sister ship. And her experiences with past admirals aren't the best ones… So for her new admiral to… _bond_ with her in such a way… agitates her while making her happy, all at the same time.

"Hm? What was that again?" Henry asks once more, hearing some sort of murmur coming from Zuikaku.

"N-n-nothing! I-I just said that you should get Shoukaku-nee!" She says with a bright red face. Henry responds with a laugh.

Meanwhile, Damon goes around the helicopter waking everyone up, including Sendai, whom he was with before the helicopter crashed. Like everyone else now, she's already awake and is now sitting down on the chairs, still filling a bit dazed.

"Feeling a little bit of jet lag, eh?" Damon asks the orange uniform-wearing girl jokingly, to which she responds with a giggle.

"How can someone have jet lag on a chopper?" She answers with a joke as well, coughing as she finishes. Damon laughs, and then walks a bit further towards Akatsuki, being helped out by Ford. The violet-haired girl lies down on the floor, while the British lieutenant starts carrying her towards the foam-covered chairs.

"Well, look at what we have here… The new guy is actually a lolicon! Didn't see that coming… quick, call the MP's! "

"I am not! I am merely assisting a comrade! Got a problem with that, mate?" The British lieutenant responds, coughing from the crash's smoke which he covers Akatsuki from.

"No, no problems here, YOU'RE the one who has a problem, you pedo!"

"Bloody hell, you're quite the exemplary Yank, aren't you?."

"Yeah, so don't come running to me for crumpets now, aight?"

"Looks like I'll have a lot of things to get used to…" the agitated Ford utters, making the mischievous American captain laugh more.

With everyone already woken up, the crew is gathering up just outside the helicopter's crash site. Henry check's the crew's remaining weapons, as there might be some weapons that have fallen out during the spin. Henry has his katana and .500 Raging Bull revolver at the ready, Damon has his issued Glock 18c, Itami has an M1911, which he picked up from the guard back at the facility, and Ford still has his M4A1 with AB-bullets. Zuikaku has Henry's M4A1 from the facility; however, it does not carry AB-bullets. Sendai has a SCAR and Akatsuki has an MP5SD. Inside the chopper is the stowed Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle, but Henry does not know its exact current state, it might have been damaged or even broken during the "landing process", if the crash could still be called by that. The two mounted M249 SAWs on each side of the helicopter are rendered useless, since their barrels and other parts got broken off during the crash. Helicopter-mounted armaments do nothing without pilots controlling them, and both pilots' current state doesn't allow them to do so. Should the enemy launch a follow-up attack, Henry's crew must make do with what they have.

"First, we need to get some form of contact to HQ. Damon, check out the heli's radio." Henry orders, as he begins walking outside of the crash.

"Right'o."

The American captain gets back in the cockpit once more, noticing that both pilots are now awake, and are even laughing.

"Hey, you know… we look like kebabs in here." The newly awakened pilot comments on their situation, followed by laughter from the two.

"Stop making me hungry." The other one replies, and they laugh again. Then, he spots Damon moving towards the controls, and asks him a question. "Hey man, how's it going out there?" He asks, along with a cough.

"We're waiting for reinforcements. Hang on guys, we'll get out of here soon enough."

"And then, we're having kebabs! HAHAHA!" The other pilot interjects with a joke, making the three men laugh, but the laughter is cut short by a fit of coughing.

"Don't get too rough, guys. You're not exactly kebabs just yet, and we don't intend on that happening."

"Yeah, I hear you. Oh, radio's right there. It's been receiving nothing but static for a while, try checking some of the wires or the frequency."

"Alright." As he says this, Damon heads out towards the radio, noticing the transceiver. He grabs it and sends out a test message.

"All units, this is Wagner. We've crashed and got two wounded. We need immediate assistance. Anyone there?"

No one responds.

Static fills the airwaves.

"Dammit!" The American captain utters in anger, slamming the transceiver back to its holder.

But what he didn't know is that someone heard his message. Unfortunately, that someone turns out to be the same guy that shot their chopper down, Kerry.

"They're still alive." The coat-clad man holding his own transceiver aboard the now-submerged submarine utters, as the sub moves in to the shore. "Alpha 2, on me. We're cleaning up."

"B-but sir, wouldn't it be safer to send out the vessels instead?" One of the Alpha 2 men armed with a silenced MP5 responds, adjusting his black-colored helmet, along with mounted eye goggles.

"Nein. Sending them out would just give them another chance to capture one of our units. Come on, this'll be quick." Kerry closes his coat's buttons, possibly to hide the strange vest he's wearing underneath. As he does this, he signals one of the crew to raise the submarine again, and, as they surface, the 5-man crew disembarks through a small motorboat and head straight for the shore with their weapons at the ready, preparing to terminate the survivors of the crash.

"Won't we get discovered by their drones, sir? One of Kerry's men asks.

"No worries. We're gonna finish this fast, whether we're discovered or not doesn't matter. We get in, get out, get paid. We also have an asset on the ground as well, despite being damaged; she might still be of use to us."

"Y-yes sir!"

Meanwhile, at the crash site, Henry and his men still await reinforcements. Standing outside the crash, he starts to spot five figures heading towards them, which he thinks is the rescue party. He turns back towards the crash to inform everyone, but he takes a second look to make sure. Upon closer inspection, he discovers that the men in front of them have somewhat similar uniforms to the men who tried to eliminate them back at the facility, and that one of them is wearing a peculiar outfit, black coat, grey undershirt, black tie. And right behind them is a figure that Henry will never forget, the enemy carrier.

"Guys, guys, we have hostiles! Ready your weapons and head outside!" he commands, knocking on the helicopter's side with his .500 Revolver drawn.

"Time for a live-fire exercise, eh?" Damon asks.

"More like a die-fire exercise if you ask me."

"Mate, that was bad, get outta here."


End file.
